Mental Health Performance, Data and Insights: What Good Looks Like
Partners in Care and Health (PCH) is a collaboration between the Local Government Association (LGA) and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) to support councils in how they improve Adult Social Care and Public Health services.
A mental health baseline insight survey was undertaken with Directors of Adult Social Care in 2023/24, which found that only 13% of responding councils felt that they had access to mental health performance data that gave them a good level of insight and assurance. Further guidance and support for councils in collecting and reporting meaningful data on mental health performance, outcomes, and activity was therefore identified as a priority.
31ten was commissioned by PCH to develop a practical guidance document on the key features required of a mental health performance report, including shareable good practice. The aim of this guidance was to provide assurance to Directors of Adult Social Care, Principal Social Workers and mental health leads on their duties and wider system performance related to adult mental health services, enabling them to report a greater level of confidence in their statutory duties, and confidently report on performance of mental health services.
The Role
We took a three-phased approach to developing the guidance:
01: Discovery
We completed an initial desktop research exercise to identify examples of good practice, including examples of performance frameworks, data dashboards, and meaningful ways of gaining insights from people who use mental health services.
02: Review and engagement
We completed structured interviews with mental health leads from councils across the country to gain insights into how mental health performance reporting works in their areas, drawing out a range of different examples of best practice from the approaches taken and drawing out key themes on the enabling factors for good mental health performance reporting. We also completed interviews with mental health leads from ADASS and the Department of Health and Social Care for insights into the key elements of effective performance monitoring. We took our initial findings to workshops with key stakeholders to refine insights into an outline for the guidance.
03: Delivery
We developed a guidance document for Directors of Adult Social Care structured around:
- The foundations for good performance reporting
- Developing a framework for good performance reporting
- Establishing the fundamentals of performance reporting and moving to more advanced reporting
- Embedding performance reporting into council and system processes
We then reviewed and iterated the guidance using feedback from key stakeholders.
Key Outcomes
- Development of a user-tested guidance document to take councils through the process of establishing good mental health performance reporting step by step, with case studies and shareable best practice performance dashboards to support learning across the sector.
- Delivery of an online launch event to share the guidance with councils across the country, and publication of the guidance on the PCH website to enable open access and widespread learning.
31ten have been great to work with. Through their structured approach, drawing on strong networks, we have ended up with practical guidance, which is providing a platform to support improvement.
Katie Norton
Care & Health Improvement Adviser, Partners in Care and Health (PCH)
