Will the Minister confirm whether the evaluation of Together for Mental Health will have engagement with mental health stakeholders and mental health services users, and, if so, will the Minister provide a list of stakeholders who will be invited to respond and the events which will be held for feedback?
I can confirm that the specification of the evaluation of Together for Mental Health Strategy included the requirement to engage with stakeholders and service users. Officials met recently with Opinion Research Services who were awarded the contract and an engagement plan will now be developed and agreed. Key groups included as part of the specification include the Mental Health National Partnership Board and the National Mental Health Service Users and Carers Forum. In addition, a series of 12 stakeholder workshops are planned for early 2022 to engage with a broad range of stakeholders across Wales. The attendees to these workshops will be identified as part of the initial scoping phase of the evaluation.
Alongside the formal independent evaluation, plans are now being developed to engage stakeholders to inform the successor to the Together for Mental Health Strategy. Further information will be available on these plans in due course.