Publication, Part of Statistics on people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health hospitals
Learning Disability Services Monthly Statistics, AT: February 2025, MHSDS: January 2025
Official statistics, Experimental statistics
Error in adult inpatient rates in Assuring Transformation (AT) Table 5.2
We have identified an error affecting the adult inpatient rates presented in Assuring Transformation (AT) Table 5.2. The error affects each AT reporting period from October 2023 to June 2025 inclusive.
The error arose due to the rate calculation having been performed using ONS mid-year population estimates from the year 2020 rather than 2017. The adult inpatient numbers in this table are unaffected by the error.
The affected rates data has now been redacted from Table 5.2 in each of the affected publications.
Corrected rates for March 2024 and March 2025, the ‘end-of-year’ months, have been published on Supplementary Information here.
NHS England apologises for any inconvenience caused.
8 October 2025 18:00 PM
Changes to reporting for patients on extended leave under Section 17 of the Mental Health Act
With effect from the publication on 20 February 2025 onwards, patients who are recorded in Assuring Transformation as on extended leave under Section 17 (S17) of the Mental Health Act due to specific court judgments (MM / PJ judgments) will be excluded from the inpatient counts reported in the publication.
A change to the guidance for data submitters on recording such patients in the data was issued in November 2024. Where historic data in the data tables is refreshed each month to account for updates by data submitters, patients will be excluded from the counts from each time point from 30 November 2024 onwards.
20 March 2025 09:30 AM
Summary findings from MHSDS
MHSDS main findings - January 2024
At the end of January 2024 (based on hospital spells data):
- There were 3,665 people with learning disabilities and/ or autistic spectrum disorders (LDA) in hospital.
- There were 1,225 admissions and 1,375 discharges. 79% of these were discharged back into the community.
- There were 435,785 referrals¹ for people with LDA.
Of these inpatients:
- 1,135 (31%) had been in hospital for over 2 years.
- There are 1,210 inpatients with a planned discharge date (33%).
- 300 (8%) had a delayed discharge.
- The largest proportion (28%) were aged between 25-34 (1,010).
- The lowest proportion (5%) were aged under 18 (200).
- 67% were male (2,465) and 32% were female (1,180).
Findings based on ward stays data:
- There were 3,610 ward stays reported for the end of the period.
- The largest group of inpatients were in an adult mental health ward (2,055, 57%), followed by a learning disabilities ward (790, 22%).
- 2,205 (61%) were in a non-secure setting². 1,215 (34%) were in a secure setting.
- 480 (13%) travelled over 50km from home to get to the hospital for care or treatment.
- 820 patients were restrained at least once.
1 These include all open referrals without a hospital spell associated with them if the inpatient did not need to stay overnight in hospital.
2 Non-secure wards include inpatients in general wards. Secure wards include patients in low, medium and high secure ward settings.
Last edited: 8 October 2025 5:54 pm