Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that clinical commissioning groups have a strategy for commissioning perinatal mental health services.

NHS England is responsible for commissioning perinatal mental health units in England. NHS England works with a range of stakeholders at a national level to determine the outcomes expected for specialised services such as perinatal mental health. The service specification for perinatal mental health services can be found at the following link:

www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-c/c06/

NHS England have also committed in their business plan to develop and deliver a pathway to support women with postnatal mental health problems by March 2015. NHS England is undertaking a detailed review of those services where a good maternal mental health pathway is in place and plan to share the learning from this review through guidance for commissioners (clinical commissioning groups) and providers. NHS England’s business plan 2014/15 – 2016/17 can be found at the following link:

www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ppf-1415-1617-wa.pdf