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 6 January 2021 to Question 126930 on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Children and Young People, what recent assessment his Department has made of the availability of beds for national obsessive compulsive disorder Tier 4 services for children and young people; and what recent discussions he has had with the institutions listed in that Answer on the current capacity for such Tier 4 services.

NHS England and NHS Improvement routinely engage with the national obsessive compulsive disorder service providers through the contract monitoring process and has reported that there is no identified unmet demand or waiting list for children and young people admissions to tier 4 services currently.

Referrals to this level of service are only considered when the six steps in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s clinical guideline on obsessive-compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder: treatment (CG31) have been exhausted for the patient. Onward referral for tier 4 admission is consequently submitted to the national service for consideration.