Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to assess the extent to which Sustainability and Transformation plans address (a) mental health provision in a locality and (b) the case for the integration of mental and physical health.

George Freeman

Sustainability and Transformation Plans are multi-year, high-level and place-based plans. Local health and care systems have been asked to ensure that they have a shared understanding of where they are in relation to the three challenges set out in the Five Year Forward View (health and wellbeing, care and quality, finance and efficiency) and where they need to be by 2020/21. They are expected to build on this to present an overall strategy for their geographic footprint and identify the 3-5 key priorities required to realise their vision. These priorities will not be the same for each area. Those areas with more advanced plans will be expected, in addition, to set out how they will deliver a number of national priorities including improvements in mental health services. In addition, NHS England and other arm’s length bodies have established a programme to implement the national strategy for mental health developed by the Mental Health Taskforce. The strategy is designed to reduce variations in access to and quality of support for people with mental health conditions and to ensure that services meet people’s physical and mental health needs in an integrated way.