Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) young people moving from CAMHS to adult services are supported and (b) there is a comprehensive transition plan for each such person.

Alistair Burt

The ambitious national programme of work as set out in Future in mind will see a system-wide transformation in children and young people’s mental health. This is specified in the Government’s Mandate to NHS England.

In taking this forward, NHS England has asked all clinical commissioning groups, working closely with their partners, to develop Local Transformation Plans to transform their local offer for mental health and wellbeing services for children and young people. These Plans must address the full spectrum of mental health: from prevention and resilience building, to support and care for existing and emerging mental health problems, as well as transitions between services, including moving from children to adult mental health services.

It is the responsibility of local providers to ensure an appropriate transition plan is in place for each individual that requires one. In 2015, NHS England published a non-mandatory service specification for transitions from child and adolescent mental health services. The aim of this sample specification is to support commissioners responsible for funding transitional services for adolescents with mental health problems. A copy of the guidance can be found at the following webpage:

www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/mod-transt-camhs-spec.pdf