September letter to directors of Adult Social Services and contacts for national data collections

Dear colleague,

NHS England issues a letter in September each year to provide information on the mandated national adult social care data returns. 

This letter provides information and deadlines for the 2023-24 mandated adult social care data which will be submitted to NHS England in 2024 and subsequently published. 

The completion of these mandated data returns is fully endorsed by the Adult Social Care Data and Outcomes Board (ASC-DOB) which comprises of representatives from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and the Local Government Association (LGA). ASC-DOB is the official sub-board of the Data Alliance Partnership (DAP) which provides oversight of the assurance and approval of information standards, data collections and data extractions across health and adult social care. All mandated data requirements are included in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) Single Data List and the Secretary of State Direction for Adult Social Care collections and associated Data Provision Notice. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) are expecting to use data from these mandated collections as part of their evidence requirements for Local Authority Assurance in conjunction with other evidence requirements.

As usual, details of any local authorities who fail to comply fully with the mandated requirements within the agreed deadline will be highlighted within the published reports and named in briefing submissions to DHSC Ministers and relevant DASS notified. It is important to be transparent about the completeness and quality of such collections, to ensure data users are fully aware of its caveats.

I draw your attention to the Additional Information items at the end of this letter. These are not directly related to the mandated collection requirements but provide information on important developments such as ASC Client Level Data, Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) Review and CQC Assessment Framework, among others.

Please ensure that colleagues who need to act on the content of this letter have sight of it. 

If you have any queries on the content of this letter, or any general queries, please contact us at [email protected] for the attention of the Adult Social Care Statistics team.

Yours faithfully,

Adam Langron
Information Analysis Lead Manager for Adult Social Care
NHS England

Key stakeholders within the adult social care setting such as Department of Health and Social Care, Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and Local Government Association are grateful to local authorities for their continued co-operation in submitting timely and high-quality information which will help: 

• improve the quality and outcomes of care for our service users and their carers
• demonstrate transparency 
• enable benchmarking 
• inform government policy decisions

The sector continues to support the work carried out by NHS England in the collection and provision of these valuable information resources for adult social care in England. 

We would also welcome further input from anyone who has suggestions on how we can better support your work in the provision of these mandated collections.

Details of the publication dates for the 2022-23 reports, for which data is already collected, can be found on the NHS England publication calendar. Data already published can be found on the ASC Data Hub.
 

Upcoming changes to collections

This letter announces reporting changes to the adult social care collections. All changes are contained in Table A and have been approved in accordance with the governance process for NHS England adult social care collections.

Table A – Collection changes

Submission dates

Local authorities must submit a complete and fully validated return by the mandated submission deadline (Table B). If there are any subsequent changes to the mandated status of any collection this will be communicated separately before the submission period opens.

Validation reports will be provided following each submission made before the mandated deadline and NHS England will work with local authorities to improve data quality (where appropriate).  These reports and the additional support provided are very useful in enhancing the quality and completeness of the returns.  

There will be a refresh submission period available after the mandated deadline, allowing local authorities the opportunity to address any data quality issues identified with the initial mandated submission.

If for any reason, you will be unable to provide a complete submission by the mandated submission deadline then please contact us as soon as possible so that we can support you with your submission; this contextual information will also be collated and published within the associated data quality report.

Table B – Key collection dates (2024)

Collection open date

This is when the window will open to allow submissions to commence.  All NHS England collections in 2024 are planned to be submitted via NHS England’s Strategic Data Collection System (SDCS).  Further information and guidance will be provided to our key contacts for each collection prior to this date, should your key contact change please inform us via [email protected].

Submissions will be accepted once the window opens, and local authorities are able to submit as many times as needed during the window to improve the quality and completeness of their data. We would recommend early and multiple submissions during the mandated submission window.

Mandated submission deadline

This is the mandated deadline for all local authorities to submit all their fully completed, checked and final mandated data to NHS England (via SDCS), the collection submission window will close at 5.00pm. Support will not be available outside normal office hours. 

We will work with Partners in Care and Health to notify the DASS where a local authority has failed to submit by the mandated submission deadline.  They will also be named within the data quality section of the associated official statistics publication and named in briefing submissions to DHSC Ministers.  We will also be unable to provide additional support to improve the quality and completeness of the submission.

Local authorities are encouraged to submit within the submission window, those who submitted prior to the closure of the mandated submission window for previous collections received additional support which was well received. 

Validation reports and data quality support available

Upon submission of the mandated data and closure of the submission window, NHS England will provide an overview validation report that local authorities can utilise to improve the quality and completeness of their submission.  We will aim to provide this within 5 working days of submission. 

In addition, NHS England will also provide support to local authorities throughout the mandated submission window to improve the quality and completeness of the submitted data. 

Refresh submission deadline

Following the Mandated Submission Deadline the submission window will re-open to allow re-submissions (via SDCS), should these be required.  The refresh submission window will also close at 5.00pm.

Once the refresh submission window has closed there will be no further opportunities to re-submit.  The mandated deadline for all data submissions is the date provided within the Mandated Submission Deadline column for each collection; the Refresh Submission Deadline is an opportunity for local authorities to re-submit should this be required. Local authorities who miss the mandated deadline but submit during the refresh window will still be named as failing to meet the mandated deadline. 

Following on from consultation with local authorities and national bodies, there are currently no confirmed recording or reporting changes to the data items for the mandated 2024-25 data collections.

Reporting changes for the current suite of data collections for 2024-25 could still be required and local authorities would be advised of this in next year’s September Letter and associated Data Provision Notice, following approval via the working groups and the full assurance process.

Included here for information and transparency, relating to:

ASC Client Level Data

The first set of quarterly submissions for the mandatory Client Level Data collection have been received, and the support and engagement of local authorities as this collection moved from voluntary to mandatory participation is very much appreciated.

Information on the Adult Social Care Client Level Data collection is available on a dedicated CLD website hosted by Arden & Gem. All the resources needed for the collection including the latest specification, guidance, onboarding instructions and support materials can be found on this site.

If you require any guidance regarding submitting data or having access to the data, please email [email protected].

Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) Review

As highlighted in last year’s letter, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has been undertaking work with key stakeholders to explore potential revisions and enhancements to the existing ASCOF. Given the scale of changes to data and digitisation across the sector over the next few years, DHSC are delivering the ASCOF refresh in two phases. Following stakeholder engagement, in April 2023 the first phase of the refresh was launched, to remove and strengthen existing metrics to reflect the latest available data. ASCOF now has 6 new objectives that set out DHSC’s priority outcomes for care and support that replace the previous four domains. 

The changes to ASCOF that apply from 1 April 2023:

• replaces metrics that are currently produced using the Short and Long Term (SALT) data collection with metrics that will now be sourced from client-level data
• ensures ASCOF reflects the Care Act 2014 and priority outcomes for adult social care
• removes metrics that we agree with the sector do not effectively measure these outcomes or are no longer available through national collections
• includes metrics that reflect people outside of those who use services and unpaid carers, such as the care workforce.

A full description of the changes can be found in the draft Handbook of Definitions. This will be updated in autumn 2023 with detailed workings for all metrics, following further stakeholder engagement on the development of metrics sourced from CLD. 

DHSC will continue to engage with stakeholders to develop metrics for the proposed second phase of the ASCOF refresh. This update will fully utilise new data streams coming online over the next few years, such as updates to the Adult Social Care Survey and Survey of Adult Carers in England, and will ensure ASCOF reflects changes being delivered across the sector as a result of reform.

CQC Assessment Framework for Local Authority Assurance

CQC are currently piloting an approach to local authority assessments. Learning from these pilots will be incorporated into the approach for formal assessments which will start later in 2023. CQC expect to include metrics from the mandated collections set out in this letter as evidence, in conjunction with other evidence sources. A draft framework detailing evidence requirements can be found on the CQC website.

Data Alliance Partnership Board assurance

During some years a cohort of local authorities are required to participate in a burden assessment exercise of a selection of the adult social care collections, which contributes to the information given to the Data Alliance Partnership Board to allow them to approve and assure the Adult Social Care data collections. This exercise was recently undertaken for Guardianship and Registered Blind but is anticipated not to take place in the coming year. 

Health and Care Statistics Consultation

NHS England are currently working towards a consultation on all its statistical outputs. It is an opportunity to ensure that the statistics produced meet user requirements. This work is being done in collaboration with other statistics producers across health and care. Once an initial review has been completed, it is intended that the resulting proposals will go to open consultation during late 2023, with the outcome report anticipated to be published in early 2024. We welcome feedback on the proposals as part of the consultation.

Office for Local Government (Oflog) – Local Authority Data Explorer

Oflog is a newly established local government performance body in England. Oflog’s aim is to provide authoritative and accessible data and analysis about the performance of local government and support its improvement. Oflog have released a new online tool which brings together a selection of existing metrics across a subset of service areas for data that is available at different levels of local authority, including Adult Social Care; Local Authority Data Explorer.

Review of Surveys by Ipsos

In early 2022, DHSC commissioned Ipsos to conduct a broad-based discovery exercise to explore and understand viable options for revising the Adult Social Care Survey (ASCS) and Survey of Adult Carers in England (SACE). Ipsos worked with advisory partners on the research, which produced a number of recommended actions for the improvement of these surveys. The full report was published as part of DHSC’s Care Data Matters roadmap. Queries regarding the surveys review should be directed to [email protected].

SALT Cessation

Client Level Data (CLD) has been mandated and first set of returns have been submitted. One year of dual running with Short and Long Term (SALT) was agreed with the sector for 2023-24. NHSE and DHSC are currently consulting with the relevant working groups alongside assessing the quality of the first set of CLD submissions, as it is the intention that all key statistics collected in SALT can be derived from CLD in future.  We will keep local authorities informed of the progress of this exploration.