Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 36 of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, whether each of the access to treatment pathways will (a) be published in the timetable set out and (b) will include waiting time targets.

Five of the clinical pathways referred to on page 36 of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health have been published to date. These are for early intervention in psychosis, urgent and emergency liaison mental health services, services for children and young people with eating disorders, Improving Access to Psychological Therapies pathway for long term conditions, and the perinatal mental health pathway.

Two more pathways, those focusing on crisis and acute mental health, and children and young people’s mental health care, are under development.

The remaining pathways are being reviewed to ensure they align with the new commitments and direction set out in the NHS Long Term Plan. NHS England has not confirmed the date of publication for these remaining pathways.

The NHS Long Term Plan has committed to specific waiting times targets for emergency mental health services which will take effect for the first time from 2020, and will be set to align with the equivalent targets for emergency physical health services. The Long Term Plan also contains commitments to test and roll out comprehensive waiting time standards for adults and children over the next decade.