CDS Visualiser

Commissioning Data Sets

The Commissioning Data Sets (CDS) are a standardised set of data definitions used across the NHS in England. Provider organisations (hospitals, mental health trusts, community providers) collect patient activity data and submit it to NHS England via the Secondary Uses Service (SUS+) using CDS XML messages.

CDS data is the primary basis for:

NHS payment (PbR / HRG tariffs)
Commissioning intelligence and planning
National statistics (HES — Hospital Episode Statistics)
Quality dashboards and performance indicators

The schema used by this app is CDS v6.3.1 (released June 2022), which is the current live version for acute provider submissions.

Key terms

Spell: A continuous period of care under one provider. Starts on admission, ends on discharge.
Episode: A period of care under one consultant. A spell contains one or more episodes.
HRG: Healthcare Resource Group — a clinical category used to set the payment tariff.
SUS+: Secondary Uses Service — the NHS England portal that receives CDS submissions.
SLAM: Service Line Activity Monitoring — internal reporting often fed from CDS data.
CDS type: Each XML message type covers a specific category of patient activity (e.g. 130 = Finished General Episode, 020 = Outpatient).

CDS types relevant to an acute provider trust

An acute trust typically generates the following CDS message types. Priority types (highest volume / payment impact) are highlighted.

Code	Name	Description	Priority
130	Finished General Episode	Elective and emergency inpatient admissions that have been discharged. Largest volume CDS type; drives the majority of PbR income.	High
020	Outpatient	Consultant-led outpatient clinic attendances. High volume; includes first and follow-up appointments.	High
120	Finished Birth Episode	Maternity — baby's birth episode (admitted patient care).	High
140	Finished Delivery Episode	Maternity — mother's delivery episode.	High
180	Unfinished Birth Episode	Birth episode where the baby is still an inpatient at month end.	Standard
190	Unfinished General Episode	General episode where the patient is still admitted at month end.	Standard
200	Unfinished Delivery Episode	Delivery episode where the mother is still an inpatient at month end.	Standard
150	Other Birth Event	Maternity births that don't result in an admitted patient episode (e.g. home births).	Standard
160	Other Delivery	Maternity deliveries occurring outside an admitted episode.	Standard

Monthly CDS submission process

Key dates

Month end: Activity is frozen in PAS.
Day 1–5: CDS extract generated and validated locally.
Day 5–11: Submission window open; files uploaded to SUS+.
Reconciliation: SUS+ feedback files checked; rejected records investigated.
SLAM / Tariff: HRG grouping applied; payment calculated by commissioner.

File format: CDS v6.3.1 XML, one ZIP per CDS type per submission batch.

Mechanism: MESH (Message Exchange for Social Care and Health) or direct SUS+ portal upload.

Frequent CDS data quality issues

AttendanceStatus starts at code 2

For outpatient (CDS 020), AttendanceStatus valid codes start at 2 (attended), 3 (attended — cancelled by patient), 4 (did not attend), 5 (cancelled by provider). There is no code 1. Systems that default to '1' will fail SUS+ validation.

PresentOnAdmissionIndicator — Y, N, or 8 only

This field (used for HSMR/SHMI) accepts only 'Y' (present on admission), 'N' (not present on admission), or '8' (not applicable / not recorded). Sending any other value, including blank, causes rejection.

Spell dates vs episode dates

Hospital Provider Spell Start Date covers the entire admission; Episode Start Date is when the consultant episode began. Common error: both set to the same value when a patient has had more than one consultant during a spell. The episode start must be ≥ the spell start.

Multiple commissioners (GP and CCG/ICB)

An episode may have both a GP Practice commissioner and an ICB/commissioner organisation. Both can appear in the same CDS record — omitting one where both are applicable causes incomplete payment attribution.

ICD-10 code format

Diagnosis codes must be submitted without the decimal point and with no trailing spaces: 'J189' not 'J18.9'. Codes must also be valid for the submitted activity date using the correct ICD-10 edition in force at that time.

Duplicate records across months

Unfinished episodes (CDS 180–200) submitted in earlier months must also be re-submitted in the month they finish, as a finished episode (CDS 120–140). Failure to include the finished record leaves SUS+ with an open episode that never closes.