Learning Disability Services Monthly Statistics (AT: January 2020, MHSDS: November 2019 Final)

Published data which are labelled as ‘provisional’ are produced from primary monthly submissions, (i.e. the first submission of each month’s data). Provisional statistics are provided in some instances in order to give the timeliest information possible for some key measures. Provisional statistics are indicative and subject to change.

Providers are able to make an optional 'refresh' submission at the time of the next month's primary submission. Statistics which have been published under the label ‘final’ are a combination of both the primary and refresh submissions. Where a refresh submission is made, the primary submission is not used. If a refresh submission is not made then the primary submission is used. This ensures the most complete and latest picture for the MHSDS is made available. Once final statistics are published then any provisional statistics for the same period should no longer be used.

The previous MHLDS monthly reports produced from Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Dataset (MHLDDS) submissions included a limited number of measures designed to suggest the number of people in the dataset who were in adult learning disabilities (including autism) and mental health services. With the expansion of the dataset to include services for young people further, methods for breaking down the data by service type have been developed.

In this publication a data file has been produced to present information for people identified as having learning disabilities and/or autistic spectrum disorder (LDA) characteristics within their submitted data for the reporting period³. LDA measures are presented for referrals and inpatient activity, as reference data tables and a CSV file. Further measures and breakdowns of existing measures will be introduced in future publications.

These measures show the volumes of patients accessing services throughout the month. This is summarised into five types of measurements:

1.      Open referrals/inpatients accessing services at the start of the reporting period
2.      New referrals/ admissions during the month
3.      Referrals closing/ discharges during the month
4.      Referrals opening and closing/ inpatients admitted and discharged within the month
5.      Open referrals/ inpatients accessing services at the end of the reporting period

The inpatient data has been created to replicate the measures currently available in the Assuring Transformation publication. It includes LDA patients with ‘a bed’ normally designated for the treatment or care of people with a learning disability or those with ‘a bed’ designated for mental illness treatment or care who have been diagnosed or are understood to have a learning disability and/or autistic spectrum disorder.

We would welcome feedback on both the methodology we have used to identify the cohort of patients and the measures that have been introduced. Please send any comments to [email protected] with ‘MHSDS LDA feedback’ in the subject.

From May 2018, these LDA specific reports and data files will no longer be included as part of the main MHSDS publication and will be reported separately here. The MHSDS LDA series is now published alongside the LDA information from the Assuring Transformation series so that all LDA data is presented in one place, making the comparisons between the two datasets easier.

High level statistics on mental health, learning disabilities and autism services will continue to be published in the main publication series for users requiring statistics for this group of services as a whole.

³ Full details of the method used to identify people with learning disabilities and/or autism are provided in the metadata file.

A group of measures about hospital spells and ward stays open at the end of the month can be used to provide a detailed picture of inpatient caseload at National, Provider and CCG of registration or residence level. Each measure has a unique identifier (referenced in the metadata file), to ensure that users know what is represented by each measure.

This national picture is incomplete without full submissions from all providers of inpatient services and gaps in the provision of information from independent sector providers will also affect the figures at subnational level to varying degrees. See the data quality section of this report for more details. These are experimental statistics and should be used with caution, using all the other available information about data quality to aid interpretation.

To prevent the release of disclosive information, for the majority of statistics within this publication any sub-national figures numbers less than five (including zero) are replaced by a “*” symbol. Please note for tables 15-18 of the Reference Tables, this also denotes where a submission has been made but data in the relevant table has not been provided. All other sub-national numbers are rounded to the nearest five. National totals are not suppressed or rounded. Calculated values in the data files are based on unrounded numbers but rounded to the nearest whole percent to prevent backward calculation. This is a change from previous months when calculated values were rounded to one decimal place. 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, additional disclosure controls have been applied to the learning disabilities and autism (LDA) data file, the LDA MHSDS/Assuring Transformation comparison file and any statistics for people with learning disabilities and/or autism in this report. This additional control for LDA is required to ensure that the disclosure control is in line with the Assuring Transformation⁴ publication. For all LDA statistics values of less than five, including at national level, have been replaced by a “*” symbol. All other values have been rounded to the nearest 5. Percentage calculations are based on unsuppressed numbers and rounded to the nearest whole number.  Where a value is suppressed, the corresponding percentage is also suppressed.

⁴ Further details of the Assuring Transformation collection is available of the NHS Digital website: http://digital.nhs.uk/assuringtransformation