Aggregate Contract Monitoring
Enables the interchange of monthly aggregate contract monitoring data between commissioners and providers of healthcare in a uniform format.
About this standard
- Publisher
- NHS England
- Also known as
- ACM
- Reference code
- DCB2050 Amd 73/2020
- Publication date
- 08/04/2021
- Status
- Active
Show definitions of statuses
Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.
Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.
Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.
- Standard type
- Collections
- Information standards
Show definitions of standard types
Collections. A Collection is a systematic gathering of a specified selection of data or information for a particular stated purpose from existing records held within health and care systems and electronic devices.
Extractions. An extraction is a type of collection that is pulled from an operational system by the data controller and transmitted to the receiver without additional processing or transcription by the sender.
Information standards. Information standards are agreed ways of doing something, written down as a set of precise criteria so they can be used as rules, guidelines, or definitions.
Technical Standards and specifications. Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.
- Collection level
Aggregate level
- Frequency
Dataset publication or collection occurs once a month.
- Contact point
Link to standard
- Documentation
- opens in a new tab
(opens in new tab)
- Applies to
- All commissioners of NHS-funded services
- All providers operating under all versions of the NHS Standard Contract
- NHS ambulance services working to the full version of the NHS Standard Contract
- Impacts on
- Implementation of this information standard impacts all health IT systems suppliers providing systems to the above providers; suppliers should work with their customers to determine necessary changes.
- Is part of
- Conformance date
- 31/10/2021
- Effective from
- 01/09/2021
Topics and care settings
- Topic
- Data definitions and terminologies
- Information governance
- Care setting
- Community health
- Hospital
- Mental health
- Social care
- Urgent and Emergency Care
Dependencies and related standards
- Dependencies
This standard needs to be reviewed and implemented alongside the NHS Data Model and Dictionary.
- Related standards
Review Information
- Scope
- NHS Services
- Sponsor
Ming Tang, Managing Director of Data and Analytics, NHS England
- Senior Responsible Officer
Vicky Mathwin, Deputy Director of Information and Intelligence, Specialised Services National Support Team, NHS England
- Business Lead
- Martin Hart, Assistant Head of Information (Reporting), NHS England
- Approval date
- 25/03/2021
- Post Implementation review Date
- 30/09/2022
Legal basis and endorsements
- Legal authority
Section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
This information standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
NHS standard contract
This collection is published under the NHS Standard Contract.
More information
The Aggregate Contract Monitoring (ACM) information standard is one of a set of standards being introduced by NHS England to enable national consistency of the flow of cost and activity information from providers to commissioners.
The others are:
- DCB3003 Patient Level Contract Monitoring
- DCB3002 Devices Patient Level Contract Monitoring
- DCB2212 Drugs Patient Level Contract Monitoring.
Having national standards to support contract monitoring will:
- reduce burden
- allow simpler and more consistent reporting
- allow easier reconciliation and validation of invoices
- provide support for service change planning and hospital capacity analysis
- improve forecasting
- allow greater monitoring of equity of access to services.
This specific ACM standard will enable the interchange, in a uniform format, of monthly aggregate contract monitoring data between commissioners and providers of healthcare.
Data is required to be submitted to NHS Digital on a monthly basis.
About this change
The changes introduced in this release are designed to:
- remove the number of very general purpose (VGP) data elements, to improve information governance and data quality
- improve consistency across the other contract monitoring data sets
- include recent changes made to the NHS Data Model and Dictionary
In addition, this information standard is now made mandatory for:
- NHS or Independent Sector providers commissioned to provide acute services under the full-length version of the NHS Standard Contract
The standard remains voluntary for other providers; full details are in the Change Specification.
The standard only relates to diagnostic imaging tests recorded in Radiology Information Systems (RIS) and not separate systems such as for breast screening and mobile cardiac ultrasound activity.
Page last updated: 03 May 2024