Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 3.92 in the NHS Long Term Plan, when four-week waiting time targets for community mental health teams will begin.

The NHS Long Term Plan commits to “test four-week waiting times for adult and older adult community mental health teams, with selected local areas”.

This will form part of wider testing of new and integrated models of primary and community mental health care, as set out in the Long Term Plan.

Testing will inform the development and establishment of future standards, and will consider the most clinically appropriate clock start and clock stop points, interventions and responsible professionals. This will take into account access, quality of care, patient experience and outcomes.

The National Health Service will then set clear standards for patients requiring access to community mental health treatment and roll them out across the NHS over the next decade.