Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of mental health patients in out of area placements; and how much that practice cost the NHS in (a) 2020 and (b) 2021.

No formal assessment has been made. The NHS Long Term Plan maintained the ambition in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health to eliminate inappropriate acute adult out of area placements (OAPs) by 2020/21. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic response, this has not yet been achieved. The latest data, for October 2021, shows that there were 620 active inappropriate acute adult OAPs, accounting for 89% of the total acute adult OAPs. All systems with inappropriate acute adult OAPs are required to refresh their local plans to ensure these placements are eliminated as soon as reasonably possible.

The total estimated cost of adult acute inappropriate OAPs between January 2020 and December 2020 was £105,352,512. The total estimated cost for 2021 is not yet available.