This dataset presents the age-standardised rate of emergency hospital admissions for intentional self-harm across all age groups. It provides a critical measure of mental health-related harm requiring urgent medical intervention and supports the monitoring of trends in self-harm incidents that result in hospitalisation.
Rationale
Emergency admissions for self-harm are a significant public health concern, reflecting underlying mental health issues, social stressors, and access to support services. Monitoring this indicator helps inform mental health strategies, service planning, and targeted interventions aimed at reducing self-harm and improving wellbeing.
Numerator
The numerator is the number of first finished emergency admission episodes in which the patient was admitted with a cause code indicating intentional self-harm (ICD-10 codes X60 to X84). Admissions are included if the episode number is 1 and the admission method begins with '2'. Regular and day attenders are excluded. Data are sourced from the Secondary Uses Service (SUS) Inpatients Report.
Denominator
The denominator is the mid-year population estimate for all ages, as provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Caveats
In 2023, NHS England introduced a methodological change requiring Trusts to report Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) to the Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS) by July 2024. Early adopter sites began reporting from 2021/22, with others following in 2022/23 and 2023/24. Some Trusts previously reported this activity under Admitted Patient Care, and the shift to ECDS may reduce the number of admissions captured by this indicator. NHSE has advised that SDEC activity cannot currently be accurately identified in existing data flows, and the impact of this change is expected to vary by diagnosis, particularly for indicators related to injuries and external causes.
External References
Fingertips Public Health Profiles – Self-Harm Admissions
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.
Emergency admissions for self-harm - ICP Outcomes Framework - Resident Locality