Notes for completion

The return covers the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2024.

The data template for the 2021-24 collection can be found on our Social care collection materials 2024 page (scroll down to the SSDA702 Guardianship Return, under the Mental Health Act 1983 section). The data template has been amended from previous years to include additional worksheets.

All dates should be entered in a valid Microsoft date format. Any date fields that contain text strings or other numeric values will prevent the data template uploading in SDCS. 

Users are able to identify dates recorded in the incorrect format themselves prior to submission by clicking on the filter button (downward facing arrow icon) in column B or F to view the data which have been input.

Once selected, a filter window should appear. In this example, the highlighted section identifies those records containing a valid date format. The two examples below the highlighted section do not appear in the same year/month/date hierarchy as they are not in a valid date format. Filtering also helps identify records with valid date formats where there may have been an input error (such as the ‘2118’ example below).

By unticking the valid records, only the data for those records with invalid date formats will be visible, enabling them to be corrected prior to submission.

Read guidance on how to convert text strings to dates.

All coloured cells must be fully completed prior to submission via SDCS. If any of these details are not completed SDCS will not be able to accept the data return for submission.

1. Select the name of your council from the drop-down list. The Council Code field will then display your council code.
2. Complete the boxes shaded in yellow (such as contact name, telephone number. Please ensure the authorising senior officer and software supplier sections are completed.

A text box is also included in this worksheet. Please provide details of the quality assurance and audit arrangements you have in place for the data used in the Guardianship return (see the Quality Assurance section for further details). The text box is limited to 255 characters – if your comment is longer than this please email us at [email protected].

A table of data validations can also be found in the worksheet. This gives a visual check that all data entries are correct - shown by a tick (✔) in the table - or there is an error in a particular column of the data table in the SSDA702 Guardianship worksheet - shown by a cross (✘).

If there are any errors showing, this will prevent upload of the data template into SDCS.

Continuing cases

(Existing cases which are current at the start of the reporting period)

Include on this return all those cases which appeared in previous returns from your local authority which were not closed before 1 April 2021.

New cases

(Cases commencing during the collection period)

Record details of any cases which commenced during the collection period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2024.

The table contains the following columns:

Column A - Reference Number

Enter a unique number which you can use to identify the case; number in sequence continuing from the last number used. Do not re-use reference numbers of closed cases.

The unique reference number should remain the same for the entire duration of the case. If the case is renewed it retains the same reference number.

Column B - Date Case Commenced

Enter the date on which the case commenced. If the exact date is not known, enter 1st of the month and the year. Dates should be in the format of dd/mm/yyyy, for example 5 June 2022 would be entered as 05/06/2022. Please ensure the date is entered in a valid Microsoft date format – dates recorded in other formats (for example text) will fail validation checks.

Column C - Section of the Act

Enter the section of the Mental Health Act 1983 under which the Guardianship order was made; this should be 7 or 37. Do not enter other sections of the Act in this column.

Column D - Sex (M/F)

Within Guardianship sex is defined as the sex the individual considers themselves to be. This is either male or female, and in the case of transgender, it should be recorded as the preference of the individual concerned.

Enter M for male or F for female.

Column E - Relationship of Guardian to the Client

Specify the relationship of the guardian to the client, such as spouse, parent, child. If guardianship has been conferred on the local authority, leave column E blank.

Column F - Date Case Closed

If the case has closed during the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2024, enter the date on which it closed. If the exact date is not known, please give an estimate of the date from the records available to you. Dates should be in the format of dd/mm/yyyy, for example 5 June 2022 would be entered as 05/06/2022. Please ensure the date is entered in a valid Microsoft date format – dates recorded in other formats (for example text) will fail validation checks.

Please pay particular attention to the notes above relating to columns A, B and F (Reference Number, Date Case Commenced and Date Case Closed). Incorrect recording of these items can impact on reporting of length of cases and also on the number of new, continuing and closed cases.

Nil return

If you had no continuing cases and no new cases please submit a data template with no records.

Historic changes

Following a national consultation on proposed changes to NHS Digital Statistics (Consultation on changes to NHS Digital Statistics 2016/17 - 2018/19, section C9 on page 27) it was agreed that we would cease the collection of amendments to previously submitted data. This will reduce the burden of submitters of Guardianship data whilst allowing us to still provide a service that meets the needs of our users.

Consequently, the Historic Changes worksheet containing Table 2 has been removed from the data template, as it is no longer necessary to record revisions to historic data for any open, continuing or closed cases.