Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Care Quality Commission has published a specific inspection framework for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) Tier 4 inpatient services; what is the maximum time allowed between inspections of CAMHS inpatient services; and in what ways the views and experiences of child patients and their parents are elicited.

Tier 4 inspections are covered as part of the child and adolescent mental health wards core service. The definition for this core service is as follows:

Child and adolescent mental health services may assess and treat children and young people as an inpatient in hospital. This may be when community-based services cannot meet their needs safely and effectively because of their level of risk and/or complexity and where they need 24-hour nursing and medical care.

If providers are registering with the CQC as a new provider, the CQC will normally aim to inspect within 12 months of registration. For services that are rated, providers will receive their initial rating at this inspection. The CQC use this initial rating to determine when next to inspect the service.

For both National Health Service trusts and independent providers, the following principles apply regarding re-inspection (for NHS trusts since June 2017 and for independent providers since April 2018):

- Inadequate – Normally within 12 months of publishing the last comprehensive inspection report;

- Requires improvement - Normally within two years of publishing the last comprehensive inspection report;

- Good - Normally within three and a half years of publishing the last comprehensive inspection report; and

- Outstanding - Normally within five years of publishing the last comprehensive inspection report.

These are maximum inspection intervals, therefore the CQC may inspect more frequently, particularly if there is a risk.

The CQC encourages people to share their experience to ensure it is acted upon, including through the national Tell Us About Your Care partner charities.

The CQC aim to speak to children and young people and their families/carers during the inspection (depending on their availability) and have specific inspection tools to enable this.

This information is published as part of the inspection framework for NHS acute hospitals.