Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Plan and NHS Planning Guidance commitments for 2019-20, what progress his Department has made on embedding a single multidisciplinary Clinical Assessment Service within integrated (a) NHS 111, (b) ambulance dispatch and (c) GP out of hours services; and if he will make a statement.

As set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, an Implementation Framework will be published shortly which will set out the next steps the National Health Service will take to deliver the commitments and the national activity and support available to systems. The Implementation Framework will assist local health systems, who will build on the engagement already taking place across the country, in developing their strategic Long Term Plan implementation plan over the summer. NHS England and Improvement will then publish a national implementation plan in the autumn.

The Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) as described in the Integrated Urgent Care Service Specification includes clinicians working within different organisations and in particular includes NHS 111, ambulance and general practitioner out of hours services. A CAS can be a virtual model where clinicians are based in different locations but work collectively to answer calls from patients and health care professionals via the NHS 111 telephone number.

The target to achieve 100% CAS coverage across England was reached at the end of March 2019.

Different areas will have achieved different levels of maturity in the implementation of their CAS and the exact make up of their CAS will differ depending on the interaction between different organisations and the NHS 111 call handler.