Introduction to the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS)

The Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) collects data from the health records of individual children, young people and adults who are in contact with mental health services. The data is re-used for purposes other than their direct care and as such is referred to as a secondary uses data set. It defines data items, definitions and information extracted or derived from local information systems.

The MHSDS brings together information captured on clinical systems as part of patient care.

The MHSDS covers not only services provided in hospitals but also outpatient clinics and in the community, where the majority of people in contact with these services are treated.

All activity relating to patients of any age who receive care for a suspected or diagnosed mental health and wellbeing need, Learning Disability, autism or other neurodevelopmental conditions is within scope of the MHSDS.

It may be that the person has:

• a mental health need or is being supported for their mental wellbeing including; gambling addiction and substance misuse; children and young people’s mental health services
• mental health support teams working in schools and colleges
• any combination of mental health, learning disability or autism needs

For services provided in England:

• If the person is wholly funded by the NHS, data submission for that person is mandatory
• If the person is partially funded by the NHS, data submission for that person is mandatory
• If the person is wholly funded by any means that is not NHS, data submission is optional

For services provided outside England:

• if the patient is attending a service located outside England, but commissioned by an English CCG, NHS England specialised commissioner or an NHS-led provider collaborative, data submission is optional but may be a requirement of the commissioning arrangements
• would include providers, for example, that are near English borders that routinely provide services to English patients and are claiming funding from English commissioners

Adult Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) are currently out of scope of the MHSDS as this activity is covered by the IAPT dataset

It is mandatory for all providers of NHS-funded specialist mental health services to submit data about these services to the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS). This applies to both NHS and independent providers.

Collection of this data is mandated via the Information Standard DCB0011: Mental Health Services Data Set.

Health and care organisations have a legal responsibility to inform patients using these services how their data will be used. Organisations should highlight the national data opt-out process, which allows patients to opt-out of sharing their information for research or planning purposes once it reaches NHS Digital. This process replaces the previous ‘type 2’ opt-out which required NHS Digital to refrain from sharing a patient’s confidential patient information for purposes beyond their direct care.

Information governance

All providers of healthcare have statutory responsibilities relating to Information Governance, Data Protection Act 1998, the GDPR and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

All organisations that have access to NHS patient information must provide assurances that they are practising good information governance and use the Data Security and Protection Toolkit to evidence this by the publication of annual assessments.

The NHS Standard Contract and the Grant Agreement are different; they are 2 forms of agreement, and are used for different purposes:

1. The Contract is used by a commissioner (ICB, NHS England) when commissioning services from a provider (which can be an NHS Trust or Foundation Trust, a private sector provider, charity, etc.). It sets out the services which the provider is required to deliver (acute services, mental health services, and so on), and the price the commissioner will pay to the provider for these services.  Amongst other things, the Contract sets out enforceable obligations on the provider to meet quality requirements, and to submit certain information relating to the contract. 
2. The Grant Agreement is different and can only be used by an ICB to grant funding to a voluntary organisation to support the organisation’s ongoing activities. It can’t be used with a small provider in place of a contract; it does not place contractual obligations on a provider to deliver any services, and is not enforceable in the way a contract is.

An example to show the difference between a contract and a grant agreement would be:

If an ICB entered into a contract with a mental health services provider (which could be a voluntary organisation) using the NHS Standard Contract, the commissioner is buying a certain number of beds (for example) from the provider. The contract sets out that the provider has to comply with national reporting requirements such as the MHSDS.

If an ICB awards a grant to the same provider, the ICB is providing support funding to the provider. The grant does not set out a requirement for the provider to submit to the MHSDS. 

Joint commissioning

Where organisations are jointly commissioned to provide services (e.g., NHS & Local Authority), the requirement to submit data will be dependent on what form of contract the ICB and local authority are using.

If the ICB and local authority are using the NHS Standard Contract, the provider is required to submit to the MHSDS.  

If the ICB has formally delegated commissioning responsibility to the local authority under a section 75 agreement, the local authority is able to use its own form of contract if it wishes to do so.  This is explained further in section 14 of the NHS Standard Contract 2023/24 Technical Guidance as follows: 

If the local authority is using its own form of contract, then the local authority would have to explicitly add a requirement on the provider to submit the MHSDS and to state that this applied to NHS activity only, rather than to both NHS and local authority activity.

This dataset contains patient-level data, not aggregate values. We need to see a record for each patient, a record for each referral, a record for each appointment, and so on. The data that should be included in submissions is explored further in the make a basic submission and expanding your submission section.  

MHSDS data is used for:

• commissioning services
• clinical audit
• research
• service planning
• inspection and regulation
• monitoring government policies and legislation
• local and national performance management and benchmarking
• national reporting and analysis

MHSDS statistics offer a comprehensive national picture of the use of specialist mental health, learning disabilities or autism services in England. These can be used by:

• policy makers
• commissioners
• mental health service users
• members of the public

The outputs generated by NHS Digital based on the MHSDS will be explored in future iterations of this guidance, but can be browsed through the Mental health data hub.  

You will package your data for submission as an Access database file, using the Intermediate Database (or IDB) as a template. This file is then passed to NHS Digital via the Strategic Data Collection Service (SDCS) Cloud. The SDCS Cloud is a secure data collection system used by health and social care organisations to submit data to NHS Digital. It uses 2-factor authentication for security.

This guidance is intended to help guide through the submission process, to break the process into chapters, to provide additional descriptions and screenshots, and to identify other web pages and documents that are available to help with each specific task.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for on these pages, please direct your query to one of the email addresses below.  

National service desk

For help with log on, passwords, SDCS cloud issues, registration

[email protected]

0300 303 5035           

MHSDS DQ team

For help understanding what to submit, assessing if you are in scope, if you want to discuss any of your data or get quick help understanding the validation reports

[email protected]

Enquiries

Any other NHS Digital enquiries

[email protected]

0300 303 5678

Stay up to date with changes to the dataset and be notified of any engagement events by signing up to the monthly Mental Health newsletter.

We run webinars on specific topics. You will notified of any engagement events if you sign up to the newsletter. 

Recordings of previous webinars are also available. In particular you may want to watch the recording of the how to submit to the MHSDS webinar.