Guardianship under the Mental Health Act 1983

The collection relates to those patients aged 16 or over subject to Guardianship under Section 7 or 37 of the Mental Health Act 1983. 

The collection includes all Guardianship cases that were open at the start of the period and all those cases that opened during the period. It also records the date the case closed if that occurred during the reporting period. The collection distinguishes whether the Guardianship order was made under Section 7 or 37 of the Mental Health Act 1983. 

Data is collected at individual case level to afford greater flexibility of analysis across variables, although key personal identifiers are not part of the submission (name, address, postcode, date of birth, etc.); only the sex of the individual is collected. Guidance notes may be found within the section ‘Data collections and guidance’ on the Adult Social Care data hub. To ensure collection of the data, a Data Provision Notice (DPN) has been served on Local Authorities.

The purpose of Guardianship is to enable patients to receive care in the community where it cannot be provided without the use of compulsory powers. Guardianship provides a framework, as part of the overall care and treatment plan, for working with a patient to allow them to achieve as independent a life as possible whilst simultaneously protecting their safety or that of others.

The purpose of the collection is to monitor Guardianship activity, with reference specifically to Section 7 and 37 of the Mental Health Act 1983, for local authorities in England.

The information is used:

• by the Government to inform policy monitoring, to supplement speeches and briefings for ministers and to support responses to parliamentary questions, prime minister’s questions and media enquiries
• by CASSRs to measure / monitor local performance, to benchmark against other councils, answer freedom of information requests, to facilitate service deployment, planning and improvement and to support the management of information, local reporting and accountability
• by the National Audit Office (NOA) to produce reports and briefings which typically relate to demonstrating value for money has been achieved
• by users unbeknownst to NHS England who use the information published for a variety of purposes

For 2021-22 and 2022-23 data (to be collected in 2023 (data collected biennially)), Guardianship under the Mental Health Act was paused and not collected from local authorities or published for this year. This data is instead being collected in 2024, along with 2023-24 data.

The pausing of this collection was approved by the Data and Outcomes Board on 13 March 2023, as chaired by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, with other partners such as the Local Government Association and Care Provider Alliance as members.

None

• Be informed
  
• Get access to it
  
• Rectify or change it
  
• Erase or remove it
  
• Restrict or stop processing it
  
• Move, copy or transfer it
  
• Object to it being processed or used
  
• Know if a decision was made by a computer rather than a person
  

Consent is not the basis for processing.

Lawful basis for the collection and analysis of personal data:

Article 6(1)(c) – legal obligation (Adult Social Care Collections Directions 2019)

Lawful basis for the collection and analysis of special categories of personal data:

Article 9(2)(h) – management of health or social care systems and services, supplemented by:

Schedule 1, Part 1, para 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 - 'Health or social care purposes'