PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Mental Health Services (7 November 2017)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to implement the recommendation in the Independent Mental Health Taskforce's Five Year Forward View for Mental Health on the need for more thorough capturing of data.

Asked by:
Kerry McCarthy (Labour)

Significant progress has been made on data for mental health services, including the publication of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health (FYFV MH) Dashboard and improvements to the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS)

The Department is working with NHS England, NHS Digital and Public Health England to develop a five year plan that will set out next steps for substantially improving data across mental health services.

NHS England has been working with NHS Digital to ensure changes are made to the MHSDS and the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies dataset to capture information on key FYFV MH priorities.

Where existing national datasets have not been able to capture data on certain priority areas, bespoke collections have been implemented. This includes Out of Area Placements, Early Intervention in Psychosis and Children and Young People with Eating Disorders.

NHS England is also leading data quality improvement work with NHS Digital, NHS Improvement, Public Health England and the Care Quality Commission across specialised and clinical commissioning group commissioned mental health services. The aim of this work is to ensure that the coverage and quality of national data is sufficient to report on all FYFV MH priorities.

Answered by:
Dame Jackie Doyle-Price (Conservative)
13 November 2017