Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made on achieving the target of reducing out-of-area placements for people receiving inpatient care for severe mental health conditions by 2021.
We remain fully committed to ending such placements by 2021 and are prioritising a number of actions to achieve this ambition. NHS England and NHS Improvement continues to provide targeted, intensive support to local areas to develop robust recovery plans where there is reliance on out of area placements.
To achieve longer-term sustainable improvements NHS England and NHS Improvement is supporting local areas to test innovative approaches to providing locally-based care for those with the most complex needs. This will also improve our understanding of how people currently cared for in long-term inpatient settings might be better supported closer to home, and in the community.