Rationale
For planning purposes, it is important that NHS boards and partner agencies develop or adapt information systems to yield relevant and anonymous data about the diagnosis of people actively in contact with services. This information sits mainly in primary care. NHS boards should have a mechanism for bringing together anonymised data from primary care lists to identify the total number of people with a diagnosis and, where appropriate, drug misuse or alcohol problem. This information should also be available by local authority area.

Systems should be developed to ensure that information can be shared in a way which satisfies both the legal and professional obligations of the services involved in care delivery, and the legitimate expectations of service users and informal carers.

Examples of evidence required to meet standard 6:
- Reports from systems and information on the methodology for collecting and reporting this information
- Total numbers of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, dementia or borderline personality disorder (and these data compared with expected prevalence data)