A&E attendances for young children - ICP Outcomes Framework - Resident Locality

This dataset presents the rate of Accident & Emergency (A&E) attendances among young children aged 0–4 years across England. It provides a crude rate per 1,000 population, offering insight into the frequency with which this age group accesses emergency care services. The data is derived from the Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS) maintained by NHS England and is linked to the child’s local authority of residence at the time of attendance.

Rationale

Monitoring A&E attendances for children aged 0–4 years is crucial for understanding patterns of urgent healthcare use in early childhood. High rates may indicate issues such as limited access to primary care, parental health-seeking behaviour, or broader public health concerns. Reducing unnecessary A&E attendances in this age group is a key public health objective, aiming to ensure children receive appropriate care in the most suitable settings.

Numerator

The numerator includes all A&E attendances for children aged 0–4 years at the time of attendance, with a valid gender recorded, and who are residents of England. Each child is assigned to their local authority of residence based on the location at the time of the A&E visit.

Denominator

The denominator is the resident population of children aged 0–4 years, based on data from the 2021 Census.

Caveats

There are no specific caveats noted for this dataset. However, users should consider potential limitations such as data completeness, accuracy of residency assignment, and changes in healthcare-seeking behaviour over time.

External References

Public Health England – Fingertips Indicator

Localities Explained

This dataset contains data based on either the resident locality or registered locality of the patient, a distinction is made between resident locality and registered locality populations:

• Resident Locality refers to individuals who live within the defined geographic boundaries of the locality. These boundaries are aligned with official administrative areas such as wards and Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs).
• Registered Locality refers to individuals who are registered with GP practices that are assigned to a locality based on the Primary Care Network (PCN) they belong to. These assignments are approximate—PCNs are mapped to a locality based on the location of most of their GP surgeries. As a result, locality-registered patients may live outside the locality, sometimes even in different towns or cities.

This distinction is important because some health indicators are only available at GP practice level, without information on where patients actually reside. In such cases, data is attributed to the locality based on GP registration, not residential address.

Click here to explore more from the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Partnerships Outcome Framework.