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Header image for the current page Adult Social Care Client Level Data

Adult Social Care Client Level Data

Welcome to the Adult Social Care Client Level Data (ASC CLD) communication and information page.

The ASC CLD project is being undertaken by NHS Arden & GEM CSU in partnership with the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC).

A DHSC project was set up as an extension to the North West pilot areas, building on their successes of working to a standardised social care data specification and linking this data with health data to provide a more frequent holistic view of their system. Despite delays caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, the client level data specification has been agreed in collaboration with social care data leads from 21 local authorities (LAs) who represent all regions in England and the Directions were published in December 2020 to allow ASC CLD data submissions.

The information within the links below is primarily focussed on:

  • Supporting local authorities with the onboarding and data submission process
  • Supporting and enabling organisations to access ASC CLD data on its own or linked to health data.

If you have any queries relating to Release 1 or Version 5 specifications, or the guidance, please contact socialcaredata@dhsc.gov.uk

Release 1 (valid from 1 April 2023)

There will be no additional fields added to the Release 1 specification prior to April 2023 when the ASC CLD collection becomes mandatory. Early publication of Release 1 Specification and Guidance enables LAs to plan and ensure the relevant data items are collected in readiness for the first mandatory submission in July 2023, covering the reference period, Apr-Jun 2023.

  • ASC CLD Principles Statement

    Please Note:
  • The specification document above will be used for submissions from April 2023, but we will continue to improve the accompanying guidance, working with the LA reference group and other stakeholders.
  • There are 50 fields in the specification. Of these, 33 are specified as ‘mandatory’.
    • For local authorities (LAs) submitting data as part of the voluntary onboarding phase, the Release 1 specification will be required for submissions of data covering the relevant reference period: Jan-Mar 2023 for quarterly submissions, or March 2023 for monthly submissions but there is no mandatory submission until July 2023
    • For queries regarding submissions or signing up to the project please contact agem.adultsocialcare@nhs.net
    • For queries relating to the specification please contact socialcaredata@dhsc.gov.uk.

'Care Data Matters': a roadmap for better data for adult social care

 

Adult Social Care Data webinar for local authorities - Monday 24th July 2023



Data and performance webinar for local leaders - March 2023

  1. CLD Funding

Details are now available regarding Client level data and Short and Long Term data collections dual-run grant 2023 to 2024: Funding to support local authorities in England in the dual running of the adult social care client level data (CLD) collection and Short and Long Term (SALT) return.

Mandatory Directions

 

Local Authority Data Privacy Notices

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

If you would like further information about NHS Digital's Data Access Request service (DARS) please use this link.
Please note: you do not need to start an application yourself – please contact us in the first instance at agem.adultsocialcare@nhs.net

Newsletters

Case Studies

Release 1 validation tool

N.B. The validation tool’s primary function is to provide operational assurance that your data will meet the basic requirements to be accepted by the Data landing Portal (DLP) at the point of submission.

Whilst we have sought to include as much intelligence and functionality to the tool as possible it cannot be used to provide insight as to how the data will be interpreted once submitted. It should not be used for governance/management oversight or approval as it is only an operational tool to assist with the data submission process.
There are no further developments planned, however ‘bugs’ will be addressed as soon as possible.

The CLD validation tool is a macro-enabled workbook that has been produced to assist Councils with their CLD development.

This is an offline tool to download and use for your own purposes in a secure internal environment. Paste your CLD data in the same format as the Release 1 template and run the macro. Once the validation has been completed successfully, you will be able to identify specific records and data items that need to be addressed.

The tool includes an instructions page with hints and tips.

It is not essential for you to use the tool prior to submission but it does mean that your data will have had a first pass at validation and this should make the submission to the Data Landing Portal more seamless. Furthermore, by running the tool, you will have access to basic summary statistics which can be used as a sense check, and if any data quality issues are apparent you have immediate access to client details for cross checking with systems.

N.B. Please ensure that you use the copy & paste function of “Paste Values 123” (Values (V)).
This is described in the ‘instructions’ tab on Line 13. Failure to do this will result in ‘date format’ errors being reported by the tool.

Please send any feedback to agem.adultsocialcare@nhs.net.

Additional resources

‘NHS Digital’s Data Landing Portal (DLP)' allows data to be transferred securely between organisations through a centrally managed system. This will be the method used for Local Authorities to submit their data specification.


DLP account registration

Please use the step by step guide 'Account creation' for instructions and guidance on how to register for a DLP account.

 

Submission templates

  • Release 1 DLP submission template (valid from 1 April 2023)

Submission timetable

  • Submission timetable
  • Please note that the submission timetable does not take account of Councils currently submitting to the rolling year, as they will all be at different positions.


ASC CLD data submissions

Please use the step by step guide ‘ASC Local Authority DLP data submission guide’ for instructions and guidance on how to submit your ASC CLD data.

 

Frequently asked questions

Monthly statistics for Adult Social Care

DHSC published the first set of statistics from CLD on March 7th 2024 in DHSC’s monthly statistics for adult social care as official statistics in development. Alongside usual updates, this part of the publication focuses on people receiving long-term support, containing the metric: the number of people receiving local authority commissioned long-term support at the end of each month from 30 April to 31 December 2023, by local authority, region, support setting, ethnicity and age group.

 

Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF)

Adult social care outcomes framework 2023 to 2024: handbook of definitions

CLD Dashboard

Central Transformation Principles

The document is posted in draft form whilst we invite local authority feedback. This feedback is now being reviewed and where changes are implemented, methodologies will be updated with a view to sharing in March the finalised approaches we will take to calculating SALT metrics derived from CLD for 2023/24.

SALT cessation

Transparency statement for local authorities 

 

The Department of Health & Social Care is hosting a series of practical drop-in sessions to aid submissions and talk through any issues.

 

The Client Level Data (CLD) project has worked collaboratively with local authorities (LAs) and stakeholders to produce a specification that represents events across the health and social care system.

Throughout the development of the specification, the CLD team have worked with LAs to refine the details of the specification and ensure the data is useful through the reference group. Additional streams of feedback have been provided and resulted in the construction of the Release 1 specification which will be used for the mandatory collection from April 2023.

With the development of the new specification, the project has progressed into its new phase in which Las have been setting up their systems to flow data. Considering this shift, the once specification-focused reference group has taken on a new purpose of updating local authorities on the progress of the project and provide the opportunity for feedback on key developments. In the most recent session, the existing engagement and support provided to LAs as we approach mandation was discussed. This was to ensure the existing engagement ensures LAs at all levels are fully supported, this includes: those currently not engaged in the process, those preparing to flow data and those already flowing data.

Feedback from LAs has suggested that practical drop-in sessions will be a useful tool to aid submissions and talk through issues they may be having. It is recognised that different LAs have different business rules and practices, and so these sessions will aim to tackle any issues with submissions flowing to the Release 1 specification.


Session Schedule and Themes

To ensure enough time to answer queries in full and avoid repeats, the questions will be chosen in advance that tackle a range of issues for each theme. The sessions will run fortnightly and address each aspect of the specification.
The session schedule along with online links can be found below (there may be changes or amendments to the schedule and LAs will be notified of this):

  • Session 1: Assessments
  • Session 2: Carers and Client Type
  • Session 3: Services
  • Session 4: Review 
  • Session 5: Person Details and Request (*Delayed for winter break*)
  • Session 6: SALT, ASCOF & project roadmap/milestones


The sessions will continue based on requirements as we approach mandation and will be open to all LAs.

If you have any comments about our sessions or how they can be improved, please complete our feedback form.


Please submit your questions before each Session to the DHSC portal via this link 

Please choose your preferred session(s) from the links below:

Session 1: Assessments

 

Session 2: Carers and Client Type

 

Session 3: Services

 

Session 4: Reviews

 

Session 5: Person Details and Requests

 

Session 6: SALT, ASCOF & project roadmap/milestones

This session will be presentation based with speakers from NHS Digital’s SALT teams alongside the DHSC team to address queries that have been raised in previous Q&A sessions.

Some of the topics that will be covered are:

  • How will/can CLD data be used to produce SALT returns
  • Effects of CLD on SALT & ASCOF measures
  • Project timelines and milestones (including data sharing)

Please note this is not a Q&A session and we will not be taking questions for this session.

 

As well as this forum, the mailbox will also be open to queries which are answered regularly, please email us at: socialcaredata@dhsc.gov.uk

 

If you require any more information or guidance regarding submitting data or having access to the data, please email: agem.adultsocialcare@nhs.net

For information regarding the wider remit of the programme, please email: socialcaredata@dhsc.gov.uk

 

Working in partnership with:

 

ADDITIONAL SERVICES

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BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
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Developing collaborative, accountable health systems
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PHM analytics and decision support