Publication, Part of Statistics on people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health hospitals
Learning Disability Services Monthly Statistics, AT: April 2025, MHSDS: March 2025
Official statistics, Experimental statistics
Error in adult inpatient rates in Assuring Transformation (AT) Table 5.2
We have identified an error affecting the adult inpatient rates presented in Assuring Transformation (AT) Table 5.2. The error affects each AT reporting period from October 2023 to June 2025 inclusive.
The error arose due to the rate calculation having been performed using ONS mid-year population estimates from the year 2020 rather than 2017. The adult inpatient numbers in this table are unaffected by the error.
The affected rates data has now been redacted from Table 5.2 in each of the affected publications.
Corrected rates for March 2024 and March 2025, the ‘end-of-year’ months, have been published on Supplementary Information here.
NHS England apologises for any inconvenience caused.
8 October 2025 18:00 PM
Resolution of Gender code issue previously affecting Tables 2.1 and 4.3
NHS England previously identified an issue affecting the ‘Gender identity’ breakdown forming part of Table 2.1 in the LDA monthly statistics from AT-Data tables. The issue also affected the ‘Gender’ breakdown which is part of Table 4.3.
These breakdowns were temporarily removed from the respective tables, as well as from the AT csv file while we investigated the issue.
This issue has now been resolved and the breakdown has been reinstated in each table.
NHS England apologises for any inconvenience caused.
22 May 2025 09:30 AM
New Restrictive Intervention (AT) Data Quality Report
NHS England have added a new data quality report to the publication. The report presents information on the completion of restrictive intervention data by submitting organisations in the Assuring Transformation (AT) data collection. The purpose of the report is to highlight where completion of restrictive intervention data is poorer to improve data quality.
Restrictive intervention data is submitted to the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) and this is the main source of use of force data for restrictive interventions for patients in contact with Mental Health Services. Data on restrictive interventions for people with a learning disability or autistic people in mental health hospital is included in this publication in the MHSDS data tables.
22 May 2025 09:30 AM
Issue with legal status breakdowns in historical publications
Please note that an issue has been identified within the legal status breakdown within tables 2.3, 4.1 and 4.2. These breakdowns relate to whether the patient was detained under the Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act or other acts.
Impact
NHS England has completed an impact assessment which showed that previously the number of patients who were subject to the MHA was being overreported by 1 and 2% of total patients. In the most recent 12 months this was closer to 1% - the median across all time periods reported was 1.1% and 25 patients.
Most of these patients were detained under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and other acts but were reported as MHA Other. Within the specific parts of the MHA, a small number of patients were reported under MHA Other but should have been reported under Part II, correcting the MHA Part II figures has largely not made a difference to the rounded figures. All figures for Part III with and without restrictions were reported correctly.
Historical Publication
This issue has been resolved in time for the May-26 publication but impacts historical publications using data from the Assuring Transformation dataset.
NHS England will not republish historical files with updated data but caution is advised in using these breakdowns and users should use the publications from the May-26 publication onwards for correct counts of patients detained under specific sections of the MHA. Statistics on people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health hospitals, AT: May 2026, MHSDS: April 2026 - NHS England Digital
NHS England apologises for any inconvenience caused.
22 June 2026 11:22 AM
Summary findings from MHSDS
MHSDS main findings - March 2025
At the end of March 2025 (based on hospital spells data):
- There were 3,965 people with learning disabilities and/ or autistic spectrum disorders (LDA) in hospital.
- There were 1,350 admissions and 1,525 discharges. 78% of these were discharged back into the community.
- There were 441,375 referrals¹ for people with LDA.
Of these inpatients:
- 1,200 (30%) had been in hospital for over 2 years.
- There are 1,495 inpatients with a planned discharge date (38%).
- 325 (8%) had a delayed discharge.
- The largest proportion (27%) were aged between 25-34 (1,065).
- The lowest proportion (5%) were aged under 18 (210).
- 67% were male (2,645) and 32% were female (1,255).
Findings based on ward stays data:
- There were 3,920 ward stays reported for the end of the period.
- The largest group of inpatients were in an adult mental health ward (2,220, 57%), followed by a learning disabilities ward (810, 21%).
- 2,415 (62%) were in a non-secure setting². 1,315 (33%) were in a secure setting.
- 540 (14%) travelled over 50km from home to get to the hospital for care or treatment.
- 860 patients were restrained at least once.
1 These include all open referrals without a hospital spell associated with them if the inpatient did not need to stay overnight in hospital.
2 Non-secure wards include inpatients in general wards. Secure wards include patients in low, medium and high secure ward settings.
Last edited: 22 June 2026 11:22 am