Mental Health Act data quality plan

We are working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement, the Department of Health and Social Care and arm’s length bodies, such as the Care Quality Commission, to improve the quality of data submitted to the MHSDS.

We will use this page to keep users informed of planned data quality activities and future developments. These future developments will be influenced by the NHS Long Term Plan and the response to the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act.

We will take broad action around the improvement of recording for key MHSDS data items used in the reporting of Mental Health Act statistics.

These items include, but are not limited to: 

• section type
• demographics information
• admission and detention times

The action will be undertaken through analysis of submitted data, which will highlight care providing organisations where this data is poorly recorded. We will communicate with these organisations, produce guidance and publish data quality metrics for the most vital data items.

We will take focused action around 2 areas:

• Community Treatment Orders (CTOs)
• Part 3 of the Mental Health Act (Patients Concerned in Criminal Proceedings or Under Sentence)

For both areas, the action will be undertaken through detailed analysis of both submitted data and other data sources to identify underlying data quality issues and highlighting the care providing organisations responsible for these issues. This will be followed by direct work with the identified organisations to support them in improving the submitted data.

The nature of future work will be guided by the NHS Long Term Plan and the response to the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act. We will continue to work with the wider healthcare system to prioritise and undertake these activities.