Contextual Overview
The Maternity and Children's Data Sets have been developed as a key driver to achieving better outcomes of care for mothers, babies and children.
The Maternity Services Data Set provides comparative, mother and child-centric data that includes information on incidence and care that can be used to improve clinical quality and service efficiency; and to commission services in a way that improves health and reduces inequalities.
The Maternity Services Data Set contains two data sets for:
- Maternity Services Data Set (also known at the Maternity Services Secondary Uses Data Set) where the information is identifiable
- Mothers Sexual Health and Infectious Diseases Data Set where the information is anonymised.
The Maternity Services Data Set:
- allows maternal and child health data to be linked so that vital information can be used to improve services
- addresses health inequalities
- provides comparative data (demographics, equalities, interventions and outcomes from pregnancy through childhood) so that health visiting services can be directed to areas with most need
- improves accountability, making it easier for the public to access comparative information to support them in making decisions about type and place of care
- records outcomes to contribute to clinical risk management and governance to reduce litigation costs
- supports the development of maternity networks and changes to the maternity tariff to drive the extension of women’s choices of maternity care, and
- underpins the improvement of local information systems to meet data set standards
- supports the Maternity Currencies.
Data Collection
The Maternity Services Data Set provides the definitions for data:
to be lodged in the data warehouse regularly and routinely e.g. monthly. Extracts for Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and other reports will be taken at prearranged intervals for publication as currently with the process for Commissioning Data Sets;
to be assembled, compiled and to flow into a secondary uses data warehouse;
to provide timely, pseudonymised PATIENT-based data and information for purposes other than direct clinical care, e.g. planning, commissioning, public health, clinical audit, performance improvement, research, clinical governance.
The Maternity Services Data Set enables standardised collection of data from various services to be assembled for reporting purposes.
Submission information
The Maternity Services Data Set is submitted to NHS Digital using the Maternity Services Data Set XML Schema.
Format information
Data for submission will be formatted into an XML file as per Technology Reference Data Update Distribution (TRUD) at: NHS Data Model and Dictionary: DD XML Schemas.
For enquiries regarding the XML Schema, please contact NHS Digital at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.
Further guidance
Further guidance has been produced by NHS Digital and is available at Maternity Data Set.
