Publication, Part of Statistics on people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health hospitals
Learning Disability Services Monthly Statistics, AT: March 2024, MHSDS: February 2024
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 17:00 PM
Changing the submission windows for the Mental Health Services Data
To provide more timely statistics in the Mental Health Services Monthly Statistics and Learning Disability Services publication series, from October 2023 activity, revised submission windows have been introduced to support a move to reporting performance data in the month following activity. Editions of the series from this one onwards are affected by this change, and each publication page will contain data relating to one month only.
For more information on the submission windows for MHSDS and how they are changing please see the below link:
Changing the submission windows for the Mental Health Services Data - NHS Digital
18 April 2024 09:30 AM
Summary findings from MHSDS
MHSDS main findings - February 2024
At the end of February 2024 (based on hospital spells data):
- There were 3,530 people with learning disabilities and/ or autistic spectrum disorders (LDA) in hospital.
- There were 1,195 admissions and 1,325 discharges. 83% of these were discharged back into the community.
- There were 404,790 referrals¹ for people with LDA.
Of these inpatients:
- 1,005 (29%) had been in hospital for over 2 years.
- There are 1,005 inpatients with a planned discharge date (28%).
- 285 (8%) had a delayed discharge.
- The largest proportion (27%) were aged between 25-34 (965).
- The lowest proportion (6%) were aged under 18 (205).
- 66% were male (2,320) and 32% were female (1,130).
Findings based on ward stays data:
- There were 3,480 ward stays reported for the end of the period.
- The largest group of inpatients were in an adult mental health ward (1,830, 53%), followed by a learning disabilities ward (825, 24%).
- 2,200 (63%) were in a non-secure setting². 1,200 (34%) were in a secure setting.
- 450 (13%) travelled over 50km from home to get to the hospital for care or treatment.
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 5:02 pm