NHS England mental health datasets

Last modified: 05 Jul 2024

Introduction

NHS England flows extracts of two mental health datasets into the UK LLC TRE - see Table 1. When we refer to the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) we include its two precursors, the Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Data Set (MHLDDS) and the Mental Health Minimum Data Set (MHMDS), which were retired in 2016 and 2015, respectively.

The MHSDS and NHS Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression (IAPT) dataset are increasingly using clinical terminology to capture clinical information, primarily through SNOMED-CT - see the Coded variables guide for further details.

The mental health datasets are complex and change in scope on a typically annual basis. UK LLC is collaborating with experts to improve documentation of these datasets and updates will be released in due course.

Coverage of mental health datasets

Table 1 summarises the temporal coverage of the two mental health datasets. Both datasets primarily only cover England - see below.

Table 1 Names, temporal coverage and availability of mental health datasets in the UK LLC TRE (the datasets in italics are retired)

Name in TRE	Full name	Domain	From	Until	Data available in TRE1
MHSDS	Mental Health Services Data Set	General	01/04/2016	Ongoing	01/04/2016 onwards
- MHLDDS	Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Data Set	General	01/04/2015	31/03/2016	01/04/2015 to 31/03/2016
- MHMDS	Mental Health Minimum Data Set	General	01/04/2006	31/03/2015	01/04/2006 to 31/03/2015
IAPT2	NHS Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression	Talking therapies	01/04/2012	Ongoing	01/04/2012 to 31/03/2023

¹As documented in the data sharing agreement.
²Until mid-2024 called the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies dataset.