In 2015/16, NHS England introduced the first centralised national wheelchair dataset about wheelchair services. It was designed to improve transparency and benchmarking. This was essential to improving the commissioning of wheelchair services, and to improving outcomes for wheelchair users.
The questions that comprise the data collection were developed through significant discussion and feedback from wheelchair service providers, people who use wheelchairs, the National Wheelchair Managers Forum, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), and other key stakeholders.
Data was collected quarterly from CCGs between July 2015 and June 2022, since July 2022 data has been collected from Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). This data supports the drive for improvements in wheelchair services. The collection has been published as an official statistics since quarter one of 2019-20 (April – June 2019).