Mental Health Spotlight Audit
About
The NACEL Mental Health Spotlight Audit will run alongside the audit of acute and community hospital providers in 2025.
The Spotlight Audit will review the quality and outcomes of care experienced by the dying person (18+) and those important to them during the last admission to a mental health inpatient facility in England, Wales and Jersey.
Data collected by the audit will build on the learning from the 2021 spotlight audit. Supporting a national picture of care delivered at the end of life, and support healthcare providers and policy makers identify areas for improvement. NACEL is featured on NHS England’s Quality Accounts list for 2024/25.
Registration for the NACEL 2025 Mental Health Spotlight Audit is now open!
The audit is open to all mental health inpatient providers in England, Wales and Jersey. Eligible organisations are asked to register for the audit via the NHS Benchmarking Network members’ area. Register here.
Data collection
An overview of the NACEL 2025 Mental Health Spotlight Audit Timescales can be found here. There will be four data collection elements of the audit:
Trust/ Health Board Overview
Case Note Review
Staff Reported Measure
Annual death data collection
Audit Guidance
The audit guidance document is intended to provide guidance on each aspect of the NACEL 2025 Mental Health Spotlight Audit for all inpatient mental health facilities in England, Wales and Jersey.
Staff Reported Measure
The Staff Reported Measure is a survey aimed at members of staff who are most likely to come into contact with dying patients and those important to them. The survey will ask questions pertaining to staff confidence and experience specifically in delivering care at the end of life.
For Trusts/Health Boards an example promotional poster is available here.
Case Note Review
The Case Note Review is a patient-level data collection focusing on 10 indicators of care, including recognition of dying, timely review of the dying and deceased patient, etc.
Annual death data collection
To understand the number of deaths occurring in mental health inpatient facilities during the year.
Additional Support & Guidance
A warm up event was held on 4th November 2024, 12pm - 1pm via MS Teams. Here, the NACEL Team outlined each audit element for the NACEL 2025 Mental Health Spotlight Audit. You can watch the recording or review the slides on the Portal Events page.
Please direct any queries the NACEL support team by email: nhsbn.nacelsupport@nhs.net
Trust/Health Board Overview
This audit element will focus on access to Specialist Palliative Care Teams within the mental health inpatient facility(s). This will be completed once for the whole organisation.
