The week after the latest submission deadline for NHS England’s Sustainability and Transformation Plans has seen a trickle of information emerging into the public domain as, partners in three of the 44 planning footprints broke rank to publish their draft plans.

NHS England’s decision to mandate that these plans be created behind closed doors was always going to attract unhelpful headlines and create suspicion. Maintaining confidentiality in a process that requires contributions and assistance from such a wide range of services was always going to be difficult. And pressure to publish was always going to be substantial, so it’s no surprise some of the plans have made it into the public domain.

First out was the draft plan for Birmingham and Solihull, published on Monday with a measured statement from Birmingham City Council Chief Executive, Mark Rogers, that included a commitment to engage with a wide range of stakeholders at a number of events over the coming months.

Also on Monday the Labour leader of Camden council, councillor Sarah Hayward, published the North Central London draft plan, expressing serious concerns about the process so far, the lack of political oversight, and public and patient engagement. She said it is “vital there is full transparency in Camden as this work progresses” and committed to consulting residents and patients on the council’s response to the plan.

And yesterday Sutton council joined the fray with Liberal Demorcrat council leader, councillor Ruth Dombey, publishing the South West London draft plan “to increase transparency and support the development of robust plans”.

Of course the publication of the plans has attracted easy apocalyptic headlines and social media comment, but the important thing is that the information is there and the much-needed public conversation about the future of health and care services can really get going.

It’s clear from the plans that have been published that the issues are massively complex. It’s clear that there are no quick or easy fixes. And it will be clear to all the public engagement specialists working on these programmes that there are substantial public consultation implications that go with them.

The programmes whose draft plans have been published have a bit of a head start. Local pressure will mount for publication of the other 41 draft plans and, now the dam has been breached, that pressure is likely soon to turn this week’s trickle of plans into a flood.