Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 36 of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, whether each access to treatment pathway will (a) be published according to the timetable set out in that document and (b) include waiting time targets.

Of the clinical pathways referred to on page 36 of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, the following have already been published.

- Early Intervention in Psychosis;

- Urgent and Emergency Liaison Mental Health Services;

- Services for Children and Young People with Eating Disorders;

- Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) pathway for Long Term Conditions; and

- The Perinatal Pathway.

Additionally, guidance in relation to IAPT for people with long-term conditions has also been published (in March) along with guidance on commissioning physical healthcare for people with severe mental illness and for developing accident and emergency liaison psychiatry services.

The acute pathway for adults and older adults are still in development alongside an updated Pathway for children and young people with eating disorders, so that more young people can be treated closer to home.

Other pathways will now need to be considered within the context of the long-term plan. The Government has been clear that better access to mental health services, to help achieve the Government’s commitment to parity of esteem between mental and physical health, is one of the principles which must underpin the plan.