Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS)#
Last modified: 19 Jun 2024
Introduction#
The MHSDS collects data about children, young people and adults who are in contact with in patient and community services for mental health and wellbeing, learning disability, autism or other neurodevelopmental condition. The MHSDS does not collect data about adult IAPT services.
Included in the MHSDS are patients treated at services located in England and those treated at services located outside England if they are commissioned by an English Integrated Care Board or NHS England specialised commissioner.
Submission of data is mandatory for care received in England if the person is at least partially funded by the NHS. It is optional for NHS-funded patients treated outside England and those wholly funded by non-NHS means. More than 300 organisations submit data each month, more than 90% of which are NHS Trusts. However, there is an increasing number of other types of organisations that are NHS-funded and therefore submit data, including voluntary care services, independent sector organisations, and councils and charities.
The dataset provides information about the type of care received, the length of care episodes, as well as information about contact with mental health and social care professionals, and measures of health and social functioning.
MHSDS is referral based which allows tracking between services and settings. The dataset includes all data relevant to the reporting period, not just finished episodes, and so researchers need to be careful of over-counting.
Structure of dataset#
The structure of the MHSDS is particularly complex. It comprises around 60 separate datasets and approximately 1,000 variables. However, the modular nature of MHSDS means that not all datasets are submitted by all organisations - it depends on the services each organisation provides.
UK LLC is collaborating with experts to improve documentation of this dataset. Further information will be added in due course.
Current and past MHSDS data models, user guidance and technical output specifications are available here: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-sets/mental-health-services-data-set/tools-and-guidance.
Data quality issues#
Overall, data quality in the MHSDS is sufficient for analysing data in relation to activity. However, other aspects of the MHSDS are poor, particularly where submission of data items is not mandated. Data can be resubmitted by providers up until the end of the financial year to fix known data quality issues. See the MHSDS data quality dashboard.