Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will update the guidance to clinical commissioning groups on local transformation plans to ensure that thorough local assessment of the needs of children who have been abused is carried out ahead of the refresh of such plans in October 2016.

Local health needs assessments should include an assessment of the mental health needs of children and young people, including those who have been abused.

Both Future in mind and the guidance that set out the process for submitting Local Transformation Plans (published in August 2015) emphasised the need to cover the whole spectrum of services for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing from prevention to interventions, and – drawing on local assessments of need - to address the full spectrum of need including children and young people who have particular vulnerability to mental health problems. This includes children who have been sexually abused and/or exploited. There is no intention of updating the original guidance though further guidance was issued recently on implementation of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health (see https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/fyfv-mh.pdf) which contained some additional information on the children and young people’s transformation programme.