Patient Level Information and Costing Systems (PLICS) Data Sets - Mandatory Collections from Summer 2022 - NHS Digital

Feedback updated 17 May 2022

We asked

We consulted on the Patient Level Information and Costing Systems (PLICS) Mandatory Collections and the changes planned for the collections due to commence from Summer 2022, including PLICS data being required from providers of Community Services.

You said

43 responses were received to the consultation across Acute, Mental Health, Community and Ambulance providers.

Respondents were asked to provide information relating to their main and any other services provided during financial year 2021/22. These responses are outlined below:

Question 4	Please select the option which best describes the main service your organisation is providing during the financial year 2021/2022.
	NHS provider - Acute services	28
	NHS provider - Mental Health services	8
	NHS provider - IAPT services	0
	NHS provider - Community services	3
	NHS provider - Ambulance services	4
	PLICS software services (PLICS system supplier)	0
	Other (please specify)	0
	Not answered	0

Question 5	Please select any other services your organisation is providing during the financial year 2021/2022.
	NHS provider – Acute services	14
	NHS provider – Mental Health services	5
	NHS provider – IAPT services	6
	NHS provider – Community services	27
	NHS provider – Ambulance services	4
	Other (please specify)	1
	Not Answered	5

A series of further questions exploring respondent views and concerns on the planned changes to the PLICS collections followed, and an overview of the responses is provided below:

Question 6	The scope of the PLICS Integrated collection from 2022 is due to be extended to cover Community Health Services. Trusts who provide these services will therefore be mandated to submit data for them. Do you support this change?
	Yes	27
	No	8
	Not Applicable - My trust does not provide Community Health Services	8

For the 8 responses where ‘No’ was answered, the details given can be summarised as:

Data not being held at patient level
Concern over data quality
The effort involved for a small proportion of cost
Concern over communications for this being mandated

A number of the respondents who answered ‘Yes’, raised similar points to those above.

Question 7	In 2022, the collection window for the PLICS mandated collections is planned to commence on 18 July 2022 and end in September 2022 (end date TBC) for data relating to Financial Year 2021/2022. This will bring the collection back to a similar schedule as was used for mandatory PLICS collections before the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Do you support this?
	Yes	22
	No	16
	I have no opinion	4
	Not Answered	1

For the 16 responses where ‘No’ was answered, the below summarises the main concerns expressed:

The collection is over the summer holiday/annual leave period
The timeline for the audited accounts being end of June leaving limited time
Concern on the impact on data quality
The impact on small costing teams
Mandating Community Health services and new requirements

There was also more feedback that the submission window should be longer than start earlier.

Question 8	Having reviewed the related documentation, do you support the planned changes to the PLICS Integrated dataset for collection in 2022?
	Yes	28
	No	8
	N/A (To be used by providers who do not provide relevant services)	3
	Not Answered	4

For the 8 responses where ‘No’ was answered, the details given can be summarised as:

Data not being held at patient level
Concern over data quality
The effort involved for a small proportion of cost
Concern over communications for this being mandated

Question 9	Having reviewed the related documentation, do you support the planned changes to the PLICS Ambulance dataset for collection in 2022?
	Yes	4
	No	1
	N/A (To be used by providers who do not provide relevant services)	38
	Not Answered	0

All of the respondents who reported providing ambulance services for financial year 2021/2022, support the planned changes to the PLICS Ambulance dataset for collection in 2022.

Question 11	Do you foresee any issues with this PLICS data collection in 2022?
	Yes	28
	No	13
	Not Answered	2

For the 28 responses where ‘Yes’ was answered, the below summarises the main issues raised:

The timing and feasibility of the new Med Tech requirement
Issues around Trust system migrations
Potential issues/concerns with PLICS Software supplier capacity and support
Potential issues/concerns with submission systems/technical issues
Potential issues/concerns with availability of all data needed for the collection
Potential issues/concerns with the collection window/timeline
Potential issues/concerns with data quality

We did

We would like to thank everyone who responded. Your feedback is valuable and important information which will be used to inform and support future work by NHS Digital on PLICS. Responses relating to process clarifications or discrete queries will be raised with the relevant Trust where appropriate. Feedback, including on any additional support that NHS Digital can provide, will also be factored into NHS Digital web content to support the collections.

We are taking into account feedback on potential technical issues, alongside experience and lessons learned from the PLICS collections in 2021 with improvements and mitigation plans being implemented for NHS Digital developed systems.

An anonymous summary of the feedback, along with the key risks highlighted by it has also been provided to NHS England and NHS Improvement to support ongoing developments and engagement activities.

Following this engagement with NHS England and NHS Improvement, submission of PLICS data would be mandated from providers of Community Health Services from 2022 on an ongoing basis and the proposed changes to the PLICS Integrated and PLICS Ambulance data sets are also planned for collection from 18/07/2022 to 09/09/2022, subject to completion of the NHS Digital governance process.

For further updates on PLICS at NHS Digital, please see the relevant section of the NHS Digital website.

Overview

NHS Digital's PLICS data collections support the NHS England and NHS Improvement Costing Transformation programme.

NHS England and NHS Improvement's Costing Transformation Programme (CTP) was set up to implement PLICS across acute, mental health, ambulance and community providers.

The CTP involves:

introducing and implementing new standards for patient-level costing
developing and implementing one single national cost collection to replace current multiple collections
establishing the minimum required standards for costing software and promoting its adoption
driving and encouraging sector support to adopt Patient Level Costing methodology and technology

We, NHS Digital (formally known as HSCIC) have previously received a mandatory request from Monitor (known as NHS Improvement) under sections 255(1), and 256(2)(a) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to develop and operate systems for the collection and analysis of PLICS data. The Mandatory Request allows for the associated Requirements Specification to be updated, which includes updates to the data to be collected.

Why your views matter

Submission of PLICS data is required from providers of acute, mental health, IAPT and ambulance services on an ongoing basis. Submission of PLICS data would also be required from providers of Community Health services from 2022 on an ongoing basis.

The PLICS data sets due for collection in summer 2022 (which relate to data for Financial Year 2021/2022) are planned to be revised.

The key changes planned to the PLICS Integrated data set for Financial Year 2021/2022 data are:

Inclusion of Community Health Services and a new CSCC feed type
PLEMI data item is mandatory in APC, OP, SWC, SI, MHPS, MHCC and CSCC feed types.
Removal of data items where they are no longer necessary in particular feed types, (for example PLEMI in EC and IAPT feed types).
Inclusion of Agreed Adjustment Code - a new data item
Inclusion of Part Cost Flag – a new data item
Inclusion of Wheelchair Activity Type – a new data item
Inclusion of Wheelchair Equipment costs in the SI feed type
Inclusion of Episode Grouping – a new data item
Inclusion of additional High-Cost devices in Reference data
Inclusion of additional High-Cost drugs in Reference data
Care Contact Identifier is mandatory in the IAPT feed type
Amendments to align with changes to activity datasets; ECDS v3.0, IAPT v2.0, MHSDS v5.0 and CSDS v1.5

The PLICS Ambulance dataset is subject to very minimal change for Financial Year 2021/2022 data. The key changes to this data set are planned to be:

Inclusion of Agreed Adjustment Code – a new data item

The data sets planned for collection by NHS Digital in Summer 2022 are contained within Annex A Section 1 (for the PLICS Integrated data set) and Annex A Section 3 (for the PLICS Ambulance data set) of the Requirements Specification (see link below under ‘Related Documents’).

NHS England and NHS Improvement have also published the draft versions of the Extract Specifications on the NHS England website which can be accessed via the links below:

Integrated Extract Specification

Ambulance Extract Specification

When reviewing these specifications, please refer to the Change Log to identify changes from 2021.

Associated NHS England and NHS Improvement draft cost collection guidance is available via the Open Learning Platform (OLP). Should you require support accessing the OLP please contact costing@england.nhs.uk.

We would like to consult with you on these changes ahead of the planned collection window later in the year. Your feedback to this consultation will be used as part of the NHS Digital governance process of these planned changes.

Please note that you do not need to complete all the questions in one go; it is possible to save your responses for completion later.

UPDATE – (01/03/2022) NHS England and NHS Improvement - Approved Costing Guidance 2022 has now been published

The Approved Costing Guidance (ACG) for 2022 has been published on the NHS England website.

The documentation can be accessed on the NHS England website via Approved Costing Guidance.

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Patient Level Information and Costing Systems (PLICS) Data Sets - Mandatory Collections from Summer 2022

Closed 15 Mar 2022

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