Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2015-11-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the time taken that children who have experienced abuse wait to receive support from therapeutic services.
Jane Ellison
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 for how CCGs will ensure that the needs of vulnerable groups, including children who have been sexually abused or assaulted, are met and will address the need for improvements and reduced waiting times, which will make it easier for children and young people to access high quality mental health care when they need it. All LTPs were received by 16 October 2015 and they are now being considered by NHS England. In addition, standard waiting times for mental health are being introduced for the first time, starting with standards on Early Intervention in Psychosis (came into force April 2015) and on Eating Disorders in Children and Young People (published in August 2015 and included in the local transformation plans produced by CCGs and now being assessed by NHS England).
NHS England also published a Commissioning Framework for Adult and Paediatric Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) Services in August 2015 which outlines the core services in SARCs and referral pathways to other services. These are now being rolled out throughout England.
