Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which parity of esteem between the treatment of mental health and physical health is applied across the NHS.

The Government set out parity of esteem in physical and mental health in law in the Health and Social Care Act 2012. The Government also set up the first waiting times for mental health – to improve access to psychological therapies and early intervention in psychosis, we have also introduced a waiting time for General Practitioners, reflecting commitments which had existed in physical health for some time. The Government further retained this commitment by welcoming the independent Mental Health Taskforce’s Five Year Forward View for Mental Health report in February 2016. The report set out a strategy for change in four key areas to drive forward improvements in mental health: promoting good mental health and helping people lead the lives they want to live, integrating care, creating a seven-day National Health Service for mental health and hard-wiring mental health across health and social care. The Government accepted all the report’s recommendations in January 2017 and published a detailed action plan for taking forward the recommendations, including how we will monitor progress and report transparently. NHS England’s implementation plan for the Five Year Forward View, published in July 2016, also set out a robust plan for delivering the commitments set out in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health.