Data security and privacy

We make every effort to ensure our standards are high in handling personal data in our work. This privacy notice explains how we use the personal information we collect, and the rights that you have if you think that we hold information about you as a data subject.

National data opt-out

The national data opt-out is a service that allows patients to stop their confidential patient information being used for any reason other than direct care.

However, there are some cases where confidential patient information is needed to help develop new treatments and make recommendations that will improve the care and safety of patients overall.

In these cases the work undertaken is considered to be in the public interest, and as long as the data is held securely and no individual data is ever shared, the collection of confidential patient information is allowed to continue.

The Manchester Self-Harm Project collects information on people who self-harm and go to hospital Accident and Emergency departments in Manchester. This information is used to improve care and safety for people who self-harm and people who may be at risk of suicide.

Our project has been fully reviewed by the Confidentiality Advisory Group of the Health Research Authority, and they have recommended that our project be exempt from applying national data opt-outs. This means that even when someone has requested that their data not be used for anything other than their own care their data will still be included in our work on self-harm.

We take the security of your data very seriously and follow strict security protocols. Only trained staff working directly on the Manchester Self-Harm Project can access your data, and we never share individual information. All our publications, reports, and recommendations will only ever present completely anonymous grouped data, and we always ensure than no individual can be identified.

Plain language infographic and summary

View a simpler version of this information about the national data opt-out: National Data Opt-Out infographic (PDF).

You can also read the full plain English summary produced in collaboration with service users and carers from the MS4MH-R group: National data opt-out – plain language summary (PDF).

Information we collect

The Manchester Self-Harm Project collects data on everyone who presents to an emergency department in the City of Manchester following self-harm.

We collect basic information on time, date, method of self-harm, as well as age and gender. For some people who are assessed by psychiatric liaison staff we also collect details on what might have led to the self-harm, past or current psychiatric care, as well as where people were referred to from the emergency department for follow-up care.

These data make it possible for us to monitor self-harm rates in Manchester over time, and to investigate different aspects of self-harm behaviour and outcomes, such as repetition of self-harm, which help to improve patient care.

As part of our work we look at mortality in people who self-harm and present to hospital in Manchester. To do this we securely submit some of the identifiable personal data we collect to information services at NHS Digital, such as name and/or postcode.

This makes it possible for our data to be linked to Civil Registration data, which can tell us whether people are still alive, if and/or how they have died, or if they have lost contact with the NHS – for example by leaving the country. With this information we can look at risk of suicide after a presentation to hospital for self-harm, and look at any changes in risk over time.

The Manchester Self-Harm project is also one of three self-harm monitoring projects that make up the collaborative Multicentre Study of Self-harm in England (along with studies based at the University of Oxford and Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation), a limited amount of data is sent to the Multicentre Study Coordinator who is based in Oxford.

The Study Coordinator merges the site-specific data into a single database that includes information on self-harm and mortality follow-up, and then securely sends a copy of the full database back to us. We do share date of death and cause of death if we have received this information from NHS Digital, but we do not share any names, addresses, dates of birth, NHS numbers, or any other identifiable personal data of anyone we collect data on in Manchester.

Instead we use local study codes in the combined Multicentre Study database to link together data on each person so we know if someone has presented to hospital for self-harm on multiple occasions. Once a copy of the Multicentre Study database has been received, that copy belongs to The Manchester Self-Harm Project, and the data controller is therefore the University of Manchester.

How we use collected information

The Manchester Self-Harm Project produces a number of outputs based on analysis of the information we collect.

We publish local reports on self-harm in Manchester which includes detailed analysis of who attends hospital for self-harm, self-harm methods, timings, and how common self-harm is in different groups (e.g. age groups, gender, people with a history of psychiatric care), as well as trends over time.

We also produce infographics that provide clear and concise messages about self-harm in Manchester, including infographics relating to specific subgroups (e.g. children and young people). We also publish papers in peer reviewed scientific journals using Manchester-only data as well as leading on various collaborative papers as part of the Multicentre Study of Self-harm in England.

We only publish aggregate figures, and we follow ONS guidance about small numbers (i.e. we do not publish low counts), and we do not share information about any individuals in our outputs. There are various retention periods for the information we collect, based on the specific requirements of the data providers and our overall Section 251 approval. Once a data destruction date is reached personal data are securely destroyed.

Data security information