Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance is provided to mental health assessment staff on (a) autism and (b) suicide; and whether that guidance refers to tips on suicide forums on how to pass mental health assessments.

Following the death of Callie Lewis in 2018, Kent and Medway NHS Trust have initiated a series of actions. The Trust has updated its suicide prevention training for staff, including refreshing its suicide prevention strategy to specifically reference autism. This training is now a mandatory annual requirement for all Trust staff within inpatient, liaison psychiatry and crisis settings. The Trust has updated its training to include the risks of suicide forums.

In January 2019, we published the first Cross-Government Suicide Prevention Workplan, which sets out an ambitious programme across national and local government and the National Health Service.