Assuring transformation data

This is what we call the information we collect about people with a learning disability, autism or both who are getting care in hospitals for their mental health or because they have had behaviour that can be challenging.

This information tells us:

  • how many people are in hospital
  • how long they have been in hospital for
  • when their care and treatment is checked
  • what kind of hospital they are in

We do this so that we can make sure people are not in hospital if they would be better looked after in the community. 

How is the information collected?

Every month NHS Digital collects information from commissioners (the people who plan and pay for services) and publish it on their website. There is a calendar that tells you exactly when it will be published.

The information collected is published in reports. The reports don’t include any personal information, like names, birthdays or NHS numbers in them.

What if someone doesn’t want their information included?

Patients in hospital who do not want details about their care included need to tell their commissioner.

These Assuring Transformation Easy Read and Plain English leaflets explain more about what we collect, why we collect it, and what to do if someone doesn’t want to be included. All commissioners need to give this leaflet to their patients and add their contact details so that patients know who to tell if they don’t want their information collected.

We also have an assuring transformation document for commissioners that tells them more about this information and what to do if someone doesn’t want their information collected.

Commissioners do not legally need to ask permission from patients to collect and submit their information but they do need to make sure people know:

  • Why it is being collected;
  • Some confidential data is included but not published;
  • How to object.

Assuring transformation data from previous months

Data collected from the end of February 2015 is on the NHS Digital website, before that date NHS England collected data directly from NHS organisations and this is available on the National Archive website.