Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to collect information on the total number of acute mental health beds in the NHS in England.

The NHS England KH03 collection collects the number of available and occupied beds open overnight that are under the care of consultants. This is published quarterly and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/bed-data-overnight/

Data is not collected for the total number of acute mental health beds in the National Health Service in England and data on non-consultant-led acute mental health beds is therefore not available.

Prior to April 2010, figures on overnight beds were collected and published via the annual KH03 return on bed availability and occupancy. These figures related to consultant-led beds, split by ward classification. The ward classifications related to mental illness were as follows:

Mental illness: children: short stay

Mental illness: children: long stay

Mental illness: elderly: short stay

Mental illness: elderly: long stay

Mental illness: other ages: secure unit

Mental illness: other ages: short stay

Mental illness: other ages: long stay

Since April 2010, overnight bed figures have been collected and published on a quarterly basis, based on consultant main specialty. For mental illness, the consultant specialties are:

710 Adult Mental Illness

711 Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

712 Forensic Psychiatry

713 Psychotherapy

715 Old Age Psychiatry

Since 2013/14, we are aware that many trusts have started classifying an increasing number of mental illness beds as non-consultant-led. This is because some mental health services are now run by multi-disciplinary teams rather than consultants. In Q1 2015/16, following a validation of beds data, several mental health providers ceased to submit returns to the NHS England KH03 collection. This was because the validation exercise concluded that beds that providers had previously been including in returns to the KH03 collection did not satisfy the criteria to be classified as ‘consultant-led’.

There are no plans to collect data on non-consultant-led beds in the KH03 collection.