Guidance

Mental health services for adults in acute inpatient care: out of area placements

Information on how care providers and commissioners can monitor and reduce their use of out of area placements (OAPs).

Documents

Details

The government has set a national ambition to eliminate inappropriate OAPs in mental health services for adults in acute inpatient care by 2020 to 2021.

This definition of OAPs has been developed following significant stakeholder engagement to enable progress against the ambition to be monitored. It is aimed at providers, commissioners and users of local adult inpatient acute mental health services in England.

It is intended to support providers and commissioners in accurately monitoring and reducing their use of OAPs and to help providers submit accurate information on OAPs to national data collections.

It will also be of interest to individuals using mental health services and who may be placed out of area for their care.

Updates to this page

Published 30 September 2016

Sign up for emails or print this page