Statistics on people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health hospitals, AT: April 2026, MHSDS: March 2026

Retrospective updates

The data presented in this report are provisional and will change in subsequent monthly data releases. This publication collects information in a “live” system that commissioners are required to update as and when changes occur in the care of a patient who falls in scope of the collection. NHS England takes a snapshot of the data in the system at the end of each month to produce the monthly publications. The numbers of patients receiving care in a particular month is likely to change over time as more clinical information becomes available and it becomes clear whether patients are or are not in scope for the collection. The limitation of this system is that it is not possible to provide a definitive number of inpatients in any reporting period.

Example of retrospectively updated data having an impact on published figures: information regarding a patient who was discharged in April may not have been entered into the system until October. This would mean that in the April to September monthly publications the patient would have been ‘in care’ and would have been counted in the end of month counts. However, the October monthly publication would not count the patient at all because they were not active within October and their discharge date was in April so they would not appear in the discharges. Retrospectively backdating the information on the number of open episodes at the end of each month as well as admissions/transfers/discharges within the month aims to address these types of issues. 

The impact of retrospective updates on monthly data are shown in table 6.2 of the AT data tables.

Statistical disclosure control

To prevent the release of disclosive information, for the majority of statistics within this publication any numbers less than five (including zero) are replaced by a “*” symbol. All other numbers are rounded to the nearest five. Calculated values in the data files are based on unrounded numbers but rounded to the nearest whole percent to prevent backward calculation. Where a value is suppressed, the corresponding percentage is also suppressed. This approach prevents identification of a person through cross referencing different publications.

In line with the NHS Anonymisation Standard, since the total population of inpatients identified as having a learning disability and/or autism is less than 10,000, this disclosure control has been applied to national figures as well as sub-national figures.

Readmissions

A readmission is where the patient’s previous date of discharge was within the last 30 days, or the last year (depending on the measure). 

For each admission, the method looks to see if the patient had any previous discharges in the last 30 days / last year. If the discharge date was the same date as the admission date then this is classed as a transfer. If the dates are different this is classed as a readmission. If there was no previous discharge date in the last 30 days / last year, this is classed as first admission.

Please note the number of readmissions within the last 30 days / last year of previous discharge and the number of transfers reported in a month will change following retrospective updates.

Length of stay for those who left inpatient care

Length of stay and total length of stay were only calculated on episodes where the actual discharge/transfer destination is community, prison or other non-hospital setting.

Patient count information

In care at the end of reporting month: means a patient was still in hospital at the end of a particular reporting period.

In care since previous month: means that by the end of the current month, a patient has been in continuous care since at least the end of the previous month.

Admitted in month: means that a patient has new hospital episode(s) in the reporting period. Note that one person could have one or more new hospital episodes if discharged from a previous hospital stay. This may also include direct transfers from another hospital.

Discharged/transferred in month: means that a patient has been discharged/transferred from the current hospital. As above, a patient could potentially have one or more discharges recorded if they experienced several short hospital stays during the period. This may also include transfers to another hospital.

Admitted and discharged/transferred in month: This represents a patient being admitted to and discharged/transferred from the same hospital within the reporting period. The patient could still be in the end of period counts if a new episode of care was started with a different hospital or ward.

Commissioner count information

Made a submission: This is when a commissioner updates their data on the CAP (Clinical Audit Platform) system or presses the ‘submission confirmation’ button to confirm no change.

Did not make a submission: This is when a commissioner did not update their data or press the ‘submission confirmation’ button.

Have no patients in scope: This is when a commissioner has not had any patients in scope during that month. Since commissioners can delete patients from the system, this number can fluctuate.

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