London Mental Health Dashboard Launches Major Updates for Improved User Experience

The London Mental Health Dashboard makes available London’s key mental health data in an easy to use format, developed by the NHS Benchmarking Network on behalf of the London Mental Health Transformation Programme, and supported by the London Mental Health Board, commissioners, and providers of mental health care across London.

NHSBN have rolled out significant improvements to the Dashboard. These improvements include a metric review, improved navigation and a refresh to the branding to provide a more user-friendly interface and easier access to vital mental health data for stakeholders across London.

The Dashboard updates include:

Metric Review:
A comprehensive review of 276 metrics resulted in updates to 121
155 metrics were retired due to data source changes.
42 were refreshed in September and the remaining 80 to follow as new data becomes available.     

Improved Data Clarity:
Users can now access detailed metadata for better understanding of metric sources and calculations.

Streamlined Navigation:
Rationalised Toolkit and Outcomes section incorporated into one single toolkit section.
The navigation has been revamped for simplicity, including a review of the tier structure within the Toolkit section to make metrics easier to find.     

Refreshed Look:
The Dashboard has undergone a complete rebranding for a more modern appearance.  

Access the new look London Mental Health Dashboard at https://lmh.nhsbenchmarking.nhs.uk to explore these updates and access valuable mental health insights for London's healthcare providers and commissioners.

These updates demonstrate the ongoing commitment of NHS Benchmarking Network and its partners to advancing mental health care, ensuring easier access to crucial data and a better experience for all users.

Health Services Investigations Body (HSIB) Releases Ground-breaking Report on Caring for Adults with Learning Disabilities in Acute Hospitals

NHS Benchmarking Network are pleased to be involved in this important investigation as the providers of the NHS England Learning Disability Improvement Standards Benchmarking Project.  This data collection has been designed to understand the extent of organisational compliance with the NHSE Learning Disability Improvement Standards and identify improvement opportunities.

The Network are proud of the incredible amount of insight available for providers and systems through this project and our broader developments around mental health, learning disabilities and autism.  Our ambition through all of our work is drive improvements in patient outcomes, raise health standards and deliver quality health and care services through data excellence, benchmarking and sharing of innovation.

Key findings from insight from the LDIS Project include:

• The health and care system is not always designed to effectively care for people with a learning disability.

• People with a learning disability who are admitted to an acute hospital are often cared for by staff without specialist training, skills and experience in working with people with a learning disability. These staff often have limited support and are unable to take the time they would like to meet the person’s needs.

• There is no standard model or national guidance for an acute learning disability liaison service (that is, teams that are specifically trained in caring for people with a learning disability). Consequently, there is variation in how these services are funded, their availability, the size of teams and what they are expected to do.

• Staff in acute hospitals may lack confidence and support in assessing the mental capacity of people with a learning disability, in line with the Mental Capacity Act (2005).

• There is no national shared system with a single point of access for storing and managing information about the needs of people with a learning disability and the reasonable adjustments required for each individual.

• Current mechanisms for sharing information about a person – such as ‘care passports’ (a document that gives staff helpful information about the person’s health and social needs, including their preferred method of communication, likes and dislikes) and alert flags (a way to highlight key information to staff) on the electronic patient record – can be unreliable. Instead, information is often gathered from friends and family.

• Evidence exists that people with a learning disability experience health inequities. Long-held societal beliefs about the abilities of people with a learning disability may influence the provision of and decisions made around their care

• The quality of learning disability services is currently monitored via the Learning Disability Improvement Standards annual benchmarking survey which is funded until the end of 2023/24. Decisions on future years have yet to be made.

Round 5 of the LDIS Project includes requests for providers to share findings with Integrated Care Boards.  Particular recommendations for Integrated Care Boards from the HSIB report include:

•  Integrated Care Boards to work with acute hospitals to share good practice and assure they meet the national learning disability improvement standards.

• Integrated Care Boards to develop and use communities of practice (‘networks’) for acute learning disability staff across the integrated care system area, with the aim of providing peer support and sharing learning to support service improvement.

To read the full HBIS report click here

To find out more about the NHS England Learning Disability Improvement Standards Project click here

NHS Benchmarking Network Supports World Mental Health Day with Data Driven Insight and International Collaboration

In recognition of World Mental Health Day, the NHS Benchmarking Network (NHSBN) are raising awareness of mental health, our work to support quality improvement in service delivery through data transparency, and international collaboration to support global initiatives to continually improve access and care.

he London Mental Health Dashboard, developed by the Network in collaboration with Transformation Partners in Health and Care, London mental health leaders, and wider London stakeholders is an example of our partnership working to create accessible and comprehensive resources for understanding and improving mental health services

The ongoing partnership between the Network and stakeholders across London will continue to support the development and utility of resources to support service users and providers of London’s mental health services.  This publicly accessible resource continues to attract local, national and international interest. You can explore the dashboard and access these resources at https://lmh.nhsbenchmarking.nhs.uk/home

Further, the Network continues to work in collaboration with international partners, the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL), to develop comparative metrics for both Adult Mental Health Services and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and support international discussion on data informed improvements. This international benchmarking program allows for the sharing of best practice and insights from diverse healthcare systems to improve mental health services internationally. Reports and outputs from this initiative can be found at https://www.nhsbenchmarking.nhs.uk/international

On World Mental Health Day, the Network is not only highlighting the importance of mental health but also demonstrating our commitment to improving mental health services through data transparency, international collaboration, and sharing of challenges and good practice. By providing valuable resources like the London Mental Health Dashboard and continuing to build our international partnerships with the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL), we are supporting local, national and international efforts to improve mental health services for those that access and deliver care..

ZSA Suicide Prevention Resource Map and Feedback

The NHS Benchmarking Network and Zero Suicide Alliance (ZSA) are working together to improve the Suicide Prevention Resource Map.

The map is an analytic and health intelligence platform, which the Network developed and delivered for the ZSA in 2020/21 and 2021/22. This supports the ZSA’s ambition to provide easily accessible information to support suicide prevention initiatives.

The map was hosted by the Network in 2022/23 and after re-contracting with ZSA in 2023/24, this represents the third year that the Network will deliver the health intelligence platform.

The broad aim of this project is to deliver data and analytics input on the ZSA platform to support the ongoing evidence-based discourse on suicide reduction.

How can you help?
We’re looking for your help to review and provide feedback about the map.

Please could you fill in the ZSA map feedback survey (https://www.zerosuicidealliance.com/ZSA-Resources/suicide-prevention-resource-map-survey) and let us know what you like and dislike about the map, plus anything you’d like to be incorporated into the redesign.

Alongside this, the Network and ZSA will be promoting World Mental Health Day on Tuesday 10th October 2023.

Please keep an eye out on our social media pages for the latest updates and materials.

Twitter/X: @NHSBenchmarking and @Zer0Suicide

 What is the Suicide Prevention Resource Map and what does it do?
The map (https://www.zsabenchmarking.co.uk/maps) aims to raise awareness of suicide, pulling together data on suicide incidence and some of the factors related to mental well being and experiences of crisis. This includes for both adults, and children and young people.

You can explore:

• Suicide incidence

• Health and social factors risk factors

• At-risk populations

• Service demand and provision

Suicide is complex, but by becoming more informed of some of these factors can use this information to achieve real change to reduce suicide.

What does the data show?
Depending on the data source you can view the data by:

• Local authority

• NHS trust

• Clinical Commissioning Group

• Integrated Care System

ZSA have applied a simple colour code to each indicator in the map to help understand the data and to highlight where urgent action is needed. Even though communities face different challenges, comparisons across regions and services encourages wider awareness and shared learning.

MHLDA Indicators – A Dashboard Transformed

The Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Indicators project commenced in April 2020 as a COVID-19 dashboard, enabling participants to track the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, CYPMHS and learning disabilities services, both within their organisation and in comparison to the wider UK dataset.

After an extensive engagement programme, this project has now been transformed to focus on a wider variety of metrics and from April 2023 includes patient safety and workforce metrics as well as the activity data that has historically been collected and reported. The reporting format has also been updated to include each of the reported data points as well as the national picture for a number of metrics. These are produced as PowerPoint slides to allow ease of use for members. 

The project is UK wide and produces bespoke reports for all providers. Additionally, this online dashboard contains a much wider analysis of all the specification metrics to support a deep-dive into organisational and national analysis.

For more information on metrics, timescales and frequently asked questions, please visit our project page

How can my organisation take part?

We welcome submissions from any member Mental Health organisation looking to take part. Data is submitted quarterly via an excel spreadsheet. Further information can be found on the Project Detail page, or by emailing the Indicators team.

We would like to thank all participating organisations for their contributions throughout the course of the project, and appreciate the time and expertise shared. Suggestions to improve the project and how we can better support your work are always welcome – please contact the team directly nhsbn.mhindicators@nhs.net