Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether an assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the implementation of the London Sexual Health Transformation Programme.

An integral part of the London Sexual Health Transformation Programme is the joint procurement by London boroughs of an e-service which is expected to commence from January 2018. Due to the scale and complexity of the procurement process this is later than originally planned; however interim arrangements for physical or online service delivery are being put in place locally as needed.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 set out local authorities’ responsibilities for commissioning open access sexual health services in their area. Procurement of the e-service was undertaken by the Programme on behalf of London local authorities. Public Health England is supporting the Programme by providing epidemiological data, advice on effectiveness of service, quality standards and will support its evaluation.

The Programme is in the early stages of delivery and a robust monitoring and evaluation framework is being established to enable an assessment of its impact in the future.