Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what criteria his Department is using to assess whether NHS sustainability and transformation plans have been the result of local community consultation.

As set out in the NHS Shared Planning Guidance, published in December 2015, the success of Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) will depend on having an open, engaging, and iterative process that involves patients, carers, citizens, clinicians, local community partners including the independent and voluntary sectors, and local government through health and wellbeing boards.

NHS England expects local engagement as part of the STP process, building where appropriate on existing engagement through health and wellbeing boards and other local arrangements. In September 2016 it issued guidance “engaging local people” to support STPs to do this, which can be found here:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/engag-local-people-stps.pdf

Where plans propose service changes, formal consultation will commence shortly in line with good practice and legislative requirements.