Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of clinical commissioning groups increased their spending on children and young people’s mental health as a proportion of their overall budget in 2015-16; and how many are forecast to increase such spending in 2016-17.

Alistair Burt

For 2015-16 we do not hold details on the increase in spend by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) on children and young people’s mental health. However a detailed and robust assurance process was set up and 123 Local Transformation Plans to improve children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing at local level were submitted to NHS England during 2015-16. This process covered every CCG in England. An assurance process was established with detailed financial tracking arrangements to ensure that the additional money was spent for the purposes intended and that locally determined key performance indicators are being met. No funding was allocated without full assurance in place.

For 2016-17 we are currently collecting planned spend on mental health services as part of NHS England financial planning processes. Programme level spend, including children and young people’s mental health spend, will be monitored routinely throughout the year and any adverse variances from agreed plans will be escalated through the routine financial reporting.