Health and Social Care

Wednesday 16th January 2019 Ministerial Corrections

Mental Health Support Teams

The following is an extract from Health and Social Care Questions on Tuesday 15 January 2019.

[Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Minister will know that the Health and Social Care Committee interrogated the Government’s plans on mental health for our young people. We found a massive gap: many schools that are passionate about their students’ mental health have had to cut the provision that they previously provided, including the educational psychologists, the councillors, the pastoral care workers and the peer mentors. Can she tell us—as the Education Minister could not tell us—what her plans will replace? We know that an army of those professionals are no longer working in our schools.

[Jackie Doyle-Price]

I know that the hon. Lady is very passionate about all this, and I can say to her that, in rolling out this additional support, we do not want to crowd out anything that is there already. It should genuinely be working in partnership with the provision that has already been undertaken, but we recognise that we need to be rolling out further investment. We are introducing a new workforce that will have 300,000 people when it is fully rolled out, but we must ensure that we invest in the training in such a way that it will be effective.

[Official Report, 15 January 2019, Vol. 652, c. 1004.]

Letter of correction from the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jackie Doyle-Price):

An error has been identified in the response I gave to the hon. Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger).

The correct response should have been:

[Jackie Doyle-Price]

I know that the hon. Lady is very passionate about all this, and I can say to her that, in rolling out this additional support, we do not want to crowd out anything that is there already. It should genuinely be working in partnership with the provision that has already been undertaken, but we recognise that we need to be rolling out further investment. We are introducing a new workforce that will treat 300,000 people when it is fully rolled out, but we must ensure that we invest in the training in such a way that it will be effective.