About this site
Mental Health Watch aims to keep you in touch with how well the mental health system in England is performing.
Whatever your interest in mental health care, this site will help you track trends and assess progress - locally, regionally and across the country. Our help video explains how.
The site uses 20 key indicators to measure the health of mental health.
We've divided these into six themes - Access, Care, Finance, Leadership, Quality and Workforce.
The site allows you to browse the indicators and interrogate the data - many of the indicators allow you to track trends at Integrated Care Board (ICB) sub-ICB, mental health trust level or nationally, as appropriate.
What are the sources of the data and how often is the information updated?
Indicators are updated as new data is released, so many indicators will be updated each month. Others will only be refreshed annually or bi-annually.
The data on many of the indicators is drawn from NHS Digital's monthly mental health statistics and these are updated when 'End of Year' data is submitted by local areas. Other indicators are taken from the quarterly mental health dashboard from NHS England.
Other indicators use data from the NHS Staff Survey, Care Quality Commission, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Open Prescribing.
For each indicator, it tells you the source of the data and how often it is updated in the right hand column.
Understanding the data
We've taken a number of steps to help you understand the data and make the most of the site.
- Big picture view: Each quarter we produce a report which looks at data trends across England as a whole. You can access this from the homepage, or as a pdf from each indicator page.
- Explaining the indicator: For each indicator we provide some information to help people who are not familiar with the data, to help you interpret it.
- Policy context: For each indicator we've described the policy context - in other words what the Government is trying to achieve
- Glossary of terms: The site refers to CCGs, STPs, and uses other terms which some people will be familiar with and others won't. We've created a glossary of terms which is available on each indicator page, in case you're unsure
Sharing the data on social media
You can share your findings from any indicator on twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.
When you share, the site will replicate the link to the indicator page only - you will need to produce your own screenshot or describe the Trust, ICB or other variables the user will have to input to see a specific chart.
Re-using the data
We'd be happy for you to re-use the data and images of charts you find on this website, provided that you credit the Royal College of Psychiatrists and refer to Mental Health Watch. You should also credit the source of the data, which is shown on each indicator page in the right hand column.