Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether there are guidelines for the inclusion of the delivery of eye services within sustainability and transformation plans.

The Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) are intended to be strategic proposals for how areas will deliver the Five Year Forward View, and the financial, health and wellbeing, and care and quality challenges in their locality. They are therefore high level, and do not address the delivery of every service.

STP footprints are not new, statutory organisations, but a new way of working. They do not change the existing accountabilities of National Health Service trusts, commissioners or local authorities. As such, existing commissioning arrangements remain in place for ophthalmology. It is expected that, where possible, individual clinical commissioning groups will commission services in a way that will ensure they are aligned to the goals of their wider STP.

The commissioning guidance for ophthalmic services can be accessed on the NHS England website:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-d/d06/