Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will conduct an independent inquiry and evaluation of Serenity Integrated Mentoring within the NHS, with regards to its evidence base, safety, legality, ethics, governance and acceptability to service users.
We have no plans to conduct such an inquiry. However, in light of the concerns that have been raised regarding the Serenity Integrated Mentoring model, NHS England and NHS Improvement have written to the medical directors of National Health Service mental health trusts asking them to review the implementation of Serenity Integrated Mentoring and similar models in trusts, in partnership with local patient representatives and those who might have been in the care of such models.
NHS England and NHS Improvement intend to gather learning from these local reviews, to inform the expansion and transformation of community and crisis care services for adults and older adults with mental health needs as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.