This publication provides the most timely statistics available relating to NHS funded secondary mental health, learning disabilities and autism services in England. This information will be of use to people needing access to information quickly for operational decision making and other purposes. These statistics are derived from submissions made using version 3.0 of the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS). This edition includes final statistics for February 2019 and provisional statistics for March 2019.
NHS Digital review the quality and completeness of the submissions used to create these statistics on an ongoing basis. More information about this work can be found in the Accuracy and reliability section of this report. Fully detailed information on the quality and completeness of particular statistics in this release is not available due to the timescales involved in reviewing submissions and engaging with data providers. The information that has been obtained at the time of publication is made available in the Provider Feedback sections of the Data Quality Reports which accompany this release. Information gathered after publication is released in future editions of this publication series. More detailed information on the quality and completeness of these statistics and a summary of how these statistics may be interpreted is made available later in our Mental Health Bulletin: Annual Report publication series. All elements of this publication, other editions of this publication series, and related annual publication series' can be found in the Related Links below.
Please note: The Quarter 4 Children and Young People Receiving Second Contact With Services measure will not be included in the June 2019 publication. A validation of this data is currently underway; we expect statistics for the full 2018/19 financial year to be published in the July 2019 publication.
Please note: The provider breakdown for AMH04 (People in contact with adult mental health services on CPA at the end of RP with HoNOS recorded) has not been included in this publication and will not be included in future publications until the cause is rectified. NHS Digital will inform users once this issue has been resolved. NHS Digital apologises for any inconvenience caused.
Notice of data item removal from MHSDS:
NHS Digital are looking into the possibility of removing the CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH TIER OF SERVICE (https://www.datadictionary.nhs.uk/data_dictionary/data_field_notes/c/ce/child_and_adolescent_mental_health_tier_of_service_de.asp) data element from MHSDS, to take effect from the April 2020 reporting period. If the data element is removed, national analysis will be carried out on the basis of an algorithm using existing information, including the patient’s derived age. This will remove a data item that is no longer relevant to common practice and help maintain focus on key remaining items.
We are keen to understand the impact of removing this data element on organisations that currently receive a data extract including this field, or otherwise use data that will be impacted by its removal. If you have any concerns regarding the removal of this data element from MHSDS, please email NHS Digital at [email protected] giving us as much information as possible about the type of organisation you represent, and the impact that removal of the data element will have on your work. Please contact us by 17:00 Monday 10 June 2019 and use ‘FOA of DSDS – Consultation on CAMHS Tier data item’ as the subject line in any communications.
Key Facts
Mental health, learning disabilities and autism services
- At the end of February, there were 1,342,397 people in contact with services; the majority of these (1,044,116) were in adult mental health services. There were 233,831 people in contact with children and young people’s mental health services and 108,943 in learning disabilities and autism services.
- 295,747 new referrals were received into services during February and 1,581,934 care contacts were attended.
- 21,156 people were subject to the Mental Health Act at the end of February, including 15,371 people detained in hospital.
Adult mental health services
- Between 1 December and 28 February 3,389 referrals with suspected first episode psychosis started treatment, of which 2,225 (65.7%) waited two weeks or less.
- 77.6% of people in contact with adult mental health services at the end of February who had been treated under the Care Programme Approach for twelve months received a review during that time.
- There were 9,629 open ward stays at the end of February in adult acute mental health inpatient care , and 5,983 open ward stays in specialised adult mental health services .
Children and young people in contact with mental health services
- Between 1 December and 28 February 2,905 new referrals for people aged under 19 with eating disorder issues were received.
- There were 448,961 referrals active at any point during February for people aged under 19, of which 61,895 were new referrals and 48,589 people under 19 were discharged during the month.
- Of the 1,265,733 in contact with mental health services at the end of February, 329,698 (26.1%) were aged under 19.