Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 March 2018 to Question 134184, whether his Department has plans to start collecting data on the number of children sent out of area to receive mental health treatment.

The collection of data on the number of children sent out of area to receive in-patient care is a vital aspect of the work NHS England is undertaking on redistributing the provision of child and adolescent mental health services Tier 4 beds to ensure improved local access and strengthened local patient pathways. There are routine referrals out of area for in-patient care where this falls within agreed clinical and geographical flows – for example, to access a more specialised service that is not available in every area.

Given the need for clarity about what constitutes an out of area placement, determining the method of data collection is in its early stages. The intention is to set out a clear plan for implementing these data collection arrangements in the next three months.

This work will also consider the potential data collection arrangements for children referred out of area for specialist community services.