Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to support Clinical Commissioning Groups to commission effective mental health services for children under 18 who have experienced abuse.

Alistair Burt

This Government is committed to delivering the vision set out in Future in mind and is driving forward the transformation of children and young people’s mental health services.

As a first step in delivering this transformation and in line with guidance published by NHS England in August, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have produced Local Transformation Plans (LTPs) for children and young people’s mental health with their local partners as proposed in Future in mind. These include plans which set out how CCGs will ensure that the needs of vulnerable groups, including children who have been abused, are met. LTPs covering all local areas have been submitted and are now being assured by NHS England’s regional teams.

Strategic Clinical Networks provide clinical advice and leadership to support decision making and strategic planning at a local level. The networks were established to bring together those who use, provide and commission the service to make improvements in outcomes for complex patient pathways using an integrated, whole system approach such as for children who have been abused. The networks work in partnership with commissioners (including local government), supporting their decision making and strategic planning, by working across the boundaries of commissioner, provider and voluntary organisations as a vehicle for improvement.

NHS England is scoping a further programme of commissioning support to build on what is already being delivered locally.