Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether public consultation was undertaken prior to the formation of Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprints.

The NHS Shared Planning Guidance (December 2015) asked each area to develop a proposed Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) footprint, engaging with local authorities and other partners on what this should look like.

The footprints were reviewed by the national bodies with regard to: geography (including patient flow); scale; fit with footprints of existing change programmes; financial sustainability; and leadership capacity.

STPs are not statutory entities but collective discussion fora which aim to bring together health and care leaders to support the delivery of improved health and care based on the needs of local populations.