| answer text |
<p>NHS Digital’s Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) provides data on the time
between referrals and discharge for neurodevelopmental services and average waiting
times for these services. However, due to data limitations this does not provide comprehensive
information on average waiting times across all child neurodevelopmental services.</p><p>
</p><p>NHS Digital began collecting data for neurodevelopmental conditions in 2018.
In addition, some referrals and activity of neurodevelopmental services for children
fall out of scope of the MHSDS, as these often happen in community settings. The MHSDS
relies on data submitted by providers of services for neurodevelopmental conditions,
therefore a substantial number of neurodevelopmental cases may be omitted from current
modelling.</p><p>The following table shows the average number of days between referral
and discharge for neurodevelopmental conditions and autism in Norfolk and England
in each year since 2018/19.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Norfolk</p></td><td><p>England</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Financial
year</p></td><td><p>Average number of days between referral and discharge</p></td><td><p>Average
number of days between referral and discharge</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018/19</p></td><td><p>166</p></td><td><p>183</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019/20</p></td><td><p>254</p></td><td><p>246</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020/21</p></td><td><p>281</p></td><td><p>348</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021/22
(April to September)</p></td><td><p>289</p></td><td><p>331</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p> </p><p>Source: Mental Health Services Dataset, NHS Digital</p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p>
</p><ol><li>Referrals with a null discharge date, null referral date, and a recorded
discharge date which is prior to the referral date have been excluded from analysis.</li><li>MHSDS
referral codes 24 (neurodevelopmental conditions) and 25 (suspected autism) for people
aged under 18 years old have been used to count referrals with a discharge between
April 2018 and September 2021, as well as the average number of days between referral
and discharge, grouped by financial year.</li><li>It is not possible to provide data
prior to 2018/19 as this was the first year that data for neurodevelopmental and autism
conditions were recorded under their current codes in MHSDS.</li><li>The scope of
MHSDS includes all secondary mental health services for both adults and children and
young people. A lot of referral and care activity for children and young people with
neurodevelopmental conditions happens outside of these mental health services, often
in community settings, and is therefore out of scope of MHSDS. At present, we are
not able to give a good estimate of the volume of this community-based activity.</li></ol>
|
|
