Publication, Part of Mental Health Bulletin
Mental Health Bulletin, 2021-22 Annual report
Official statistics, Experimental statistics
Proportion of population in contact with services
Please note, an issue was uncovered with Table 3 in both Excel Reference Files presented in this publication. The error related to the proportion of the population in contact with mental health services in 2021-22. This error has now been rectified and files reissued. The error only impacts the data in Table 3, the CSV and Power BI data were unaffected.
27 January 2023 08:30 AM
Main Findings
These figures show key findings about people known centrally to be in contact with NHS funded secondary mental health, learning disabilities and autism services in England during 2021-22. Further figures are available in the reference tables which accompany this publication.
A person is considered to be in contact with services in this publication if they have had an open referral with secondary mental health, learning disabilities and autism services during 2021-22. This may include referrals which did not result in an attendance with a service or treatment being received.
Changes Over Time
- 3,256,695 people were known to be in contact with secondary mental health, learning disabilities and autism services at some point during 2021-22.
- 992,647 of these were under 18 years of age and 2,251,385 were aged 18 or over
- Changes in scope, issues with the quality of some submissions and the increase in submitting providers have impacted on the comparability of statistics prior to 2016-17 with 2016-17 onwards. Full details of this can be found in the Making comparisons with previous years section of this report.
- Statistics for people of all ages prior to 2016-17 are most closely comparable with statistics for people aged 18 or over from 2016-17 onwards due to the inclusion of mental health services for children and young people from this year.
People Aged 18 or over
- 15.8% of people aged 90 or over (82,245) and 13.2% of people aged between 85 and 89 years old (116,763) and 8.7% of people aged between 80 and 84 years old (126,161) in England were known to be in contact with secondary mental health, learning disabilities or autism services during 2021-22. This will include people in contact with these services because of organic mental health disorders such as dementia. This compares to 5.8% of people of all ages who were known to be in contact with secondary mental health, learning disabilities or autism services during 2021-22.
- 4.2% of people aged 18 or over (93,961) known to be in contact with secondary mental health, learning disabilities or autism services had spent time admitted as an inpatient as part of their care during 2021-22.
People aged under 18
- 22.8% of 16 year old females (69,580) and 20.5% of 17 year old females (60,952) in England were known to be in contact with secondary mental health, learning disabilities or autism services during 2021-22. 12.6% of 16 year old males (40,611) and 12.0% of 17 year old males (37,743) in England were known to be in contact with these services.
- The number of in-year bed days for females aged 16 to 17 known to be in contact with secondary mental health, learning disabilities or autism services during 2021-22 were 153,509. The number of in-year bed days for males aged 16 to 17 known to be in contact with secondary mental health, learning disabilities or autism services during 2020-21 were 33,786. This is compared to 151,603 bed days for females aged 16 to 17 and 35,497 bed days for males aged 16 to 17 in 2020-21.
- The number of people in contact with secondary mental health services aged 11 to 15 has increased from 359,681 in 2020-21 to 498,558 to 2021-22, an increase of 38.6%
Changes since March 2020
- This publication represents a full year of reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2019-20 publication reported data up until 31 March 2020, with lockdown restrictions coming into effect on 26 March 2020. The main impact of the COVID-19 was seen in the 2020-21 data.
- The number of people in contact with services in 2021-22 increased from 2,803,244 in 2020-21 to 3,256,695, an increase of 16.1%.
- The number of in year bed days recorded increased by 13.6% in 2021-22 when compared to 2020-21. This is also reflected in the number of admissions and discharges in the year. Admissions fell from 110,420 in 2020-21 to 109,900 (-0.5%) . The number of discharges increased from 107,185 to 107,413 (0.2%).
- The number of care contacts in 2021-22 increased to 28,611,747 with 84.8% of these being attended contacts. This is compared to 27,765,893 in 2020-21, of which 86.1% of contacts were attended.
Last edited: 11 March 2024 2:25 pm