Out of Area Placements (OAPs)

The term Out of Area Placement (OAP) replaces the term Out of Area Treatment (OAT). Out of Area Treatment is a retired term in NHS Data Model and Dictionary, as it is associated with non-contract activity. Out of Area Placements are also referred to as Out of Area Admissions in NICE guidance.

The government set a national ambition to eliminate inappropriate OAPs in mental health services for adults in acute inpatient care by 2020-21. It is essential to introduce a collection of OAPs in order to understand whether progress is being made on the ambition and to understand where and why OAPs are happening. It is essential that this data is collected if we are to improve patient care and ultimately eliminate the practice of inappropriately sending patients out of area to receive acute inpatient care.

The Department of Health asked NHS England to carry out this work under a Direction from the DHSC under s.254 of the 2012 Act. Read the Directions: Collection of Out of Area Placements (OAPS) for adults in acute mental health inpatient services Direction 2016.

Mental health foundation trusts, mental health non foundation trusts and independent sector providers who send adults out of area for acute inpatient care should submit data to the collection. Private patients seen in an NHS healthcare setting should be included.

Unfortunately, due to poor quality data being submitted to the Mental Health Services Dataset by a small number of providers that send and receive OAPS, it will not be possible to close this collection in the near future.  NHS England are working with these providers to resolve the issues and ask that you continue to submit to this collection until further notice.

Data will be submitted by providers using the NHS England secure online Clinical Audit Platform (CAP).

The Clinical Audit Platform is an application hosted and supported by NHS England. It is a secure, web based platform that will be used for the collection of OAPs data. Users who are registered to the OAPs collection will be able to  enter and submit OAPs data.

It is up to each provider to decide who in their organisation will collect and submit the patient information onto the Clinical Audit Platform. There can be more than one user per organisation.

The person(s) identified to submit data will need to register to use CAP by creating a 'Single Sign On Account' and completing the 'user registration form' listed within the Provider Documents below.

Details of monthly submission dates are in the OAPs data submission timetable .

NHS England will publish monthly reports based on monthly extractions from the data collection system. These will be published as an official statistic on the NHS England website.

These reports are used to help the NHS to improve patient care, experience and outcomes. NHS England does not publish anything that could identify a patient. Publications will use aggregated or grouped data. Small numbers will be replaced with an asterisk *. Data shared within the NHS will be anonymised.

Local processes should be developed to submit any data. Documents that provide information and support are available within the following provider documents. 

OAPs User Registration Form v0.6 - complete and submit to request access for a member of staff to upload your monthly OAPs data.

OAPs Data Items Specification Excel spreadsheet listing all data items, their types, help text, and picklist variables

OAPs General FAQs to help answer any general questions about the collection

OAPs Scope and definitions FAQs to help you decide whether your organisation is in scope to submit data for this collection; and if so, what type of placements should be submitted

OAPs Data Entry FAQs to help you with any data entry or submission queries.

OAPs operational guidance v1.5 screenshots and steps to help you submit your data using the CAP online system

OAPs Data Recording Form - v3.4  an optional paper form to help you record details of a month's placements before you enter and submit them at the start of the new month

Patient bulk upload template

Placement bulk upload template

OAPs Operational Guidance - Submitting Data via file upload screenshots and steps to help you submit your data using the CAP online system

For further information or if you have any queries please contact our national service desk by emailing [email protected]  or telephone 0300 303 5035.