Publication, Part of Statistics on people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health hospitals
Statistics on people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health hospitals, AT: October 2025, MHSDS: September 2025
Official statistics, Experimental statistics
Learning Disability Services Statistics Re-naming Consultation
NHS England recently carried out a consultation exercise on the proposed renaming of the Learning Disability Services Statistics monthly publication.
As a result, this publication has been renamed to Statistics on people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health hospitals. This change has taken effect with this publication.
NHS England would like to thank all those who participated in the consultation.
20 November 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 10:14 AM
Summary findings from the AT dataset
Main findings
Data collected at the end of October 2025 shows that:
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There were 2,020 people with a learning disability and autistic people in hospital at the end of the month.
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More patients were discharged (165) than admitted (110) to hospitals.
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120 (73%) were discharged back into the community.
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Many inpatients have been in hospital for a long time. Of those in hospital at the end of the month, 1,020 (51%) have had a total length of stay of over 2 years. This includes 310 who have been in hospital for more than 10 years.
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820 (41%) inpatients are in a secure ward.
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There were more males than females in hospital.
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The largest number of inpatients (595, 30%) were aged between 25-34, and the lowest number (40, 2%) were aged 65 and over.
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110 were admitted to hospital. Of these 60 were first admissions, 25 were readmissions within a year of the previous discharge, and 25 were transfers from other hospitals.
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570 inpatients (28%) last had a review of care over 6 months ago.
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30% of inpatients (495) in hospital travelled up to 10km for care or treatment, whilst approximately 34% of inpatients (555) in hospital travelled over 50km for care or treatment.
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415 inpatients (21%) have a date planned for them to leave hospital.
Inpatients
Overall Counts
There were 2,020 people with a learning disability and autistic people in hospital at the end of the month. Of these, 1,925 have been receiving care from the start of the month.
Of the NHS England commissioning regions, the Midlands accounts for the highest proportion of people with a learning disability and autistic people in hospital (19% of the total), whilst the South-West has the lowest (9% of the total).
Inpatient Age and Gender
(220, 11%) of inpatients are under 18 and (40, 2%) are 65 and over. The largest number of inpatients are in the 25-34 group (595, 30%).
Overall, there were more males than females in hospital.
Total Length of Stay
An inpatient’s total length of stay is the time since the date of their first admission to any hospital as part of this continuous period of inpatient care.
Of those in hospital at the end of the month, 1,020 (51%) have had a total length of stay over 2 years. This includes 310 who have been in hospital for more than 10 years.
Ward Security Level
1,195 (59%) of inpatients are in a non-secure ward, and 820 (41%) are in a secure ward. 65 (3%) of inpatients were in a high secure ward setting.
Non-secure wards include inpatients in general wards and psychiatric intensive care units (PICU). Secure wards include patients with low, medium and high secure ward settings.
Time since most recent review of care plan
950 (47%) inpatients had a review of care within the last 12 weeks. 570 (28%) last had a review of care over 6 months (26 weeks) ago.
Admissions
Counts of admissions include people who were admitted in the month and who were admitted and discharged in the month. For further details see the Glossary and Definitions in the AT Appendices.
Admissions by Status on Admission
110 were admitted to hospital during October 2025. Of these 60 were first admissions in a year, 25 were readmissions within a year of the previous discharge, and 25 were transfers from other hospitals.
Source of Admission
Patients were most commonly admitted from their usual place of residence (41%), followed by admission from other hospital (mental health/LD) (25%) and other hospital (general/A&E) (25%).
Discharges / transfers
Discharge Destination
165 inpatients were discharged from a hospital during September 2025. Of these 120 (73%) were discharged back to the community. 35 (20%) were transferred to another hospital setting.
(Counts of discharges include people who were discharged in the month and who were admitted and discharged in the month. Discharges includes where patients were transferred to other hospitals.
The recording of discharge destination changed in v3 of the dataset from April 2021, earlier data is not comparable.
For further details see the Glossary and Definitions in the AT Appendices.)
Last edited: 22 June 2026 10:14 am