Today the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) has published a follow-up to our review of mental health statistics in England, initially published in September 2020.
This short report updates on the progress made by statistics producers and summarises what we would like to happen next to ensure that mental health statistics in England continue to develop to meet users’ needs.
OSR has found that while progress has been made against all the requirements from our initial review, there have been ongoing challenges around access to data. We recognise that the statistics teams have been working hard to tackle these issues, and we encourage them to continue to identify and strive to overcome any ongoing barriers to data sharing and access.
Ed Humpherson, DG Regulation said:
“Mental health is an important public health topic as anybody can be affected with mental illness at any point in their life. Our on-going review of mental health statistics in England highlights the importance of statistics that focus on wider public health issues and not just on NHS performance.”
He continued:
“OSR recognises the difficulties NHS England has faced in relation to data sharing and access, and strongly encourages it to continue identifying and overcoming any ongoing barriers in this area.”
Notes to Editors:
- OSR provides independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the UK. We aim to enhance public confidence in the trustworthiness, quality and value of statistics produced by government.
- OSR does this by setting the standards they must meet in the Code of Practice for Statistics. We ensure that producers of government statistics uphold these standards by conducting assessments against the Code.
- Part of our role as the statistics regulator is to investigate concerns on the quality, good practice and comprehensiveness of official statistics. It is not our role to moderate public discourse.
For media enquiries please contact OSR on Tel: +44 (0)207 592 8659
Related Links:
Review of mental health statistics in England: Update December 2023
Mental Health Statistics in England: September 2020
Chris Roebuck to Ed Humpherson: NHS Digital update on mental health statistics
NHS England guest blog: Mental health data quality