Publication, Part of Mental Health Services Monthly Statistics
Mental Health Services Monthly Statistics, Performance April 2024
Official statistics
Issue with median and 90th percentile metrics in the referral spells data
Please note that an issue has been identified with the MRS03a, MRS03b, MRS10a, MRS10b figures. These relate to median and 90th percentile waiting times.
The issue has been resolved and the files replaced.
16 September 2024 08:30 AM
Issue with access metrics
An issue was identified with the sub national geographies present in the initial published files in the 4 access metrics (MHS91, MHS95, MHS108 and MHS109). This issue meant that data at sub national commissioning geographies were an undercount. Data for the four metrics has been revised using the cut of latest data available which was cut at the end of October 2024.
The data for the four metrics has been replaced in the main and time-series files and where this has occurred the status will reflect "Adhoc" rather than "Performance".
19 November 2024 11:26 AM
Summary
This publication provides the timeliest picture available of people using NHS funded secondary mental health, learning disabilities and autism services in England, excluding those who are solely in contact with Talking Therapies. This information will be of use to people needing access to information quickly for operational decision making and other purposes. More detailed information on the quality and completeness of these statistics is available in the Data Quality section, as well as within the Data Coverage and Data Quality VODIM and Integrity files available under 'Resources'.
Highlights
Release of 'End of Year Final' 2024-25 data
'End of Year Final' versions of the main monthly csv files for each month between April 2024 and March 2025, collected under MHSDS version 6, which reflect revised 2024-25 Multiple Submission Window Model submissions that occurred after 'Performance' monthly data had already been published are now available.
The following files will be re-issued using end-of-year 'final' data
- Monthly 'Main' csv
- Monthly 'Restrictive Interventions' csv
- Monthly 'Out of Area Placements' csv
- Monthly 'Mental Health Services Measures to support the Adult Social Care Outcome Framework' csv
- Monthly 'Referral Spells' csv
- Monthly 'Access and Waiting Times Reference Tables' csv
- Monthly 'Adult Social Care Outcome Framework' csv
- Monthly 'Time series' csv
- Monthly 'Time Series for Out of Area Placements' csv
The 24/25 data in the monthly time-series file to be issued for the April-24 reporting period will be based on final, end-of-year data.
Please refer to the relevant monthly publication pages available from the Mental Health Services Monthly Statistics series page for further details and to access the 'End of Year Final' 2024-25 data.
Removal of experimental statistics badge
The statistics in this publication are now marked as official. More information can be found in the 'Data Quality' chapter.
New metrics
Full details are available in the Metadata file and Mental Health Services publication list.
Closing of the Clinical Audit Platform collection of Out of Area Placements
The CAP collection of Out Of Area Placements (OAPs) will cease following the collection March 2024 activity. Reporting of OAPs activity from April 2024 will be done using MHSDS data only. Data relating to OAPs from MHSDS can be found in the relevant CSV file in this publication.
Changing the submission windows for the Mental Health Services Data
To provide more timely statistics in the Mental Health Services Monthly Statistics publication series, from October 2023 activity onwards, revised submission windows have been introduced to support a move to reporting performance data in the month following activity. Each publication page now contains data relating to one month only.
This April 2024 performance publication contains all data relating to the reporting period in it, with the exception of perinatal (a quarterly output) and restraints (a monthly output) data. This is because these data are being published in the second month following the activity. Providers have indicated that there is often some delay until the restraints data is available for them to submit. As a result, the timeliness with which NHS England receives restraints data does not currently support 'first cut' reporting, although it may do in the future should timeliness improve.
As the maternity dataset continues to use two-windows for performance reporting - the quarterly perinatal outputs are produced after the end of the second window of submitting.
As of 13th June 2024, 'second cut' restraints data for March 2024 and 'second cut' perinatal data for March 2024 has been added to the March 2024 performance publication page.
As of 16th May 2024, ‘second cut’ restraints data for February 2024 performance has been added to the February 2024 performance publication page.
MHSDS Version 6
The April-24 reporting period figures are the first reports using MHSDS v6. The implementation of MHSDS v6 includes a fundamental restructuring of the recording of key areas including (but not limited to) - service or team type, ward details and delayed discharges.
Full details of the major methodological changes made for this publication can be found here.
Any figures should be interpreted with caution as Data Quality issues may be present in the data used to create the measures. Please see the 'Data Quality Comments' which contains details of providers who have reported Data Quality issues.
Closing of the Clinical Audit Platform collection of Out of Area Placements
The CAP collection of Out Of Area Placements (OAPs) has ceased following the collection March 2024 activity. Reporting of OAPs activity is now done using MHSDS data only. Data relating to OAPs from MHSDS can be found in the relevant CSV file in this publication.
Changing the submission windows for the Mental Health Services Data
This April 2024 performance publication contains all data relating to the reporting period in it, with the exception of restraints data. This is because these data are being published in the second month following the activity. Providers have indicated that there is often some delay until the restraints data is available for them to submit. As a result, the timeliness with which NHS England receives restraints data does not currently support 'first cut' reporting, although it may do in the future should timeliness improve.
Performance reporting for restraints will be added to this page for April-24 on July 25th.
Mental Health publications consultation
NHS England are consulting on the future of Mental Health reporting. This consultation covers the Mental Health Services Monthly Statistics, the Mental Health Bulletin and the Mental Health Act, Annual Figures publications.
The consultation is designed to help make decisions about future reporting and to ensure that the data provided is as useful as possible. The survey link further down this this page (or here) is available for users to provide feedback directly.
If you would like to discuss your views in more detail with us, please email [email protected] including "Mental Health Publications consultation" in the subject.
Access the code used to create this report
The code used to create the outputs for this report is available on our NHS Digital GitHub webpage.
Key Facts
Key Facts Based on 'End of Year Final' data
- At the end of April, there were 1.94 million people were in contact with mental health services, at the end of April; the majority of these (1.30 million) were in contact with adult mental health services.
- There were 461,200 people in contact with children and young people’s mental health services and 271,530 in learning disabilities and autism services.
- 442,894 new referrals were received into services during April, and 2.13 million care contacts were attended.
- 21,944 people were subject to the Mental Health Act at the end of April, including 16,094 people detained in hospital.
Key Facts Based on 'Performance' data (superseded by 'End of Year Final' statistics)
- At the end of April, there were 1.91 million people in contact with services; the majority of these (1.36 million) were in adult mental health services.
- There were 401,964 people in contact with children and young people’s mental health services and 244,424 in learning disabilities and autism services.
- 425,787 new referrals were received into services during April, and 2.00 million care contacts were attended.
- 20,897 people were subject to the Mental Health Act at the end of April, including 15,349 people detained in hospital.
This is the first monthly release using data collected under MHSDS version 6. Please refer to the April 2024 publication for an outline of the changes to the dataset introduced by the move to MHSDS version 6. Full details of the changes to the dataset are available in the Technical Output Specification and the updated constructions for all measures in this publication are available in the metadata file.
Resources
Last edited: 26 August 2025 1:51 pm