Data quality is measured on submission of annual data by local authorities, and processes are followed to try and improve quality of data submitted. Summary measures indicate that the data submitted was valid and complete to a high degree. The quality of data has improved over time and therefore users should be aware of the following specific issues:
Not completed applications
As in previous years, NHS Digital has used the data available to calculate the estimated volumes of applications not completed at year end. An estimated number of applications not completed can be created by taking last year’s reported number of applications not completed, adding the number of applications received and then subtracting the number of applications completed.
This calculation produces an estimated figure greater than the equivalent figure reported by local authorities. NHS Digital has worked with local authorities to try to understand the reasons for this. From the local authorities who provided explanations for their variation, one common theme was that this variation could be explained by the figures from the previous reporting period being higher than they should have been. This was due to several reasons, such as the previous return including applications that should have had a status of Not Granted but the application was still showing as in progress, or data quality issues caused by migrating data from older reporting systems.
Variance in active authorisations
The DoLS data collection should include all applications that were active at any point in the year. During the analysis of the data, it was noticed that a number of local authorities had once again not submitted data for authorisations that had been started in the previous year but had finished in the current year. During the data validation process, many local authorities resolved this issue and included the missing authorisations for their final data return. However, some local authorities did not have the capacity to correct their data. As a result, twenty one local authorities are showing significantly lower numbers of active authorisations on 1 April 2018, the opening date of the 2018-19 collection, compared with the previous day, 31 March 2018, the closing date of 2017-18 collection. Having these data allows us to accurately measure the actual duration of granted authorisations and also measure the number of authorisations in place throughout the year. NHS Digital will continue to provide the guidance document and encourage all local authorities to review this document each year to ensure they are including the correct records.
Person Reference
Should an individual have multiple DoLS applications, the same Person Reference should be used for each of their applications. This allows NHS Digital to analyse and provide data on numbers of applications per individual. During the data validation process, NHS Digital identified some local authorities which used a different Person Reference for each row of their return which would indicate the unlikely situation that each record was for a different person. Four local authorities were unable to address this issue in time for the final submission deadline. NHS Digital will continue to work with local authorities to ensure there is a clear understanding about use of Person Reference.
Incomplete Actual End Dates
During the data validation process, NHS Digital identified approximately 8,000 cases across 29 local authorities where the Planned End Date of the authorisation was during the current reporting period however the Actual End Date had been left blank, indicating the unlikely scenario that the authorisation was still in place. NHS Digital worked with the local authorities in question to resolve this issue which reduced the number of these cases to approximately 2,500. This issue has the effect of inflating the figure reported in Table 6 in the Time Frames data tables, which is the number of authorisations in place on 31st March 2019.
Removal of ‘withdrawn’ application status
The ‘withdrawn’ application status was removed for the 2018-19 collection to ensure all not granted cases are recorded appropriately. A new ‘Reason Not Granted’ code ‘Admin Error’ was created to allow cases to be recorded which had been genuinely withdrawn e.g. the application had been sent to the wrong local authority. As a result, the number of not granted applications as a proportion of completed applications has increased, as withdrawn cases were not previously included in the not granted figures.
Please see the Data Quality Statement for more information on data quality.