Asked by: Baroness Tyler of Enfield (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government which Department has lead responsibility for children and young people’s mental health.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has lead responsibility for children and young people’s mental health, working closely with the Department for Education.
Asked by: Baroness Tyler of Enfield (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the increase in unexpected patient deaths reported by England’s mental health trusts; and what steps they are taking to reduce the number of such deaths.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government wants to make the National Health Service the safest, most transparent healthcare system in the world - the first step towards this ambition is to collect safety data more reliably. The level of reported harm has increased as a result of our very deliberate improvements in the way such events are recorded and investigated.
The Government has introduced requirements for the reliable reporting of any safety incidents, all of which should be investigated fully at a local level then reported to NHS England.
From April 2017, all NHS trusts and foundation trusts will be required to publish numbers of avoidable deaths and how they are improving care.
Asked by: Baroness Tyler of Enfield (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the additional £1.25 billion in funding for mental health services announced in the last Parliament will be spent on specialist services for children in care and young people who have been in local authority care.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
No recent assessments have been made of the mental health outcomes amongst care leavers, or of their access to services. However, one of the themes of Future in mind, published in March 2015 was care for the most vulnerable, including looked after children and care leavers. Although care leavers may be adults, the report addressed the needs of those in transition to adult services and looked at how services could be improved for those with mental health conditions reaching the age of 18 when they generally transfer to adult services.
The Government is currently considering how best to take forward proposals in Future in mind to deliver system-wide, sustainable transformation as well as the way in which the additional £1.25 billion made available in the 2015 Spring budget for children’s mental health over the course of the current Parliament will be used. However, decisions on how to allocate funding to best meet the needs of individual groups of children and young people will be made locally and reflected in local transformation plans.
A copy of Future in mind is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Tyler of Enfield (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recent assessment they have made of access to specialist mental health services for young people who have been in local authority care.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
No recent assessments have been made of the mental health outcomes amongst care leavers, or of their access to services. However, one of the themes of Future in mind, published in March 2015 was care for the most vulnerable, including looked after children and care leavers. Although care leavers may be adults, the report addressed the needs of those in transition to adult services and looked at how services could be improved for those with mental health conditions reaching the age of 18 when they generally transfer to adult services.
The Government is currently considering how best to take forward proposals in Future in mind to deliver system-wide, sustainable transformation as well as the way in which the additional £1.25 billion made available in the 2015 Spring budget for children’s mental health over the course of the current Parliament will be used. However, decisions on how to allocate funding to best meet the needs of individual groups of children and young people will be made locally and reflected in local transformation plans.
A copy of Future in mind is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Tyler of Enfield (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recent assessment they have made of mental health outcomes for young people who have been in local authority care.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
No recent assessments have been made of the mental health outcomes amongst care leavers, or of their access to services. However, one of the themes of Future in mind, published in March 2015 was care for the most vulnerable, including looked after children and care leavers. Although care leavers may be adults, the report addressed the needs of those in transition to adult services and looked at how services could be improved for those with mental health conditions reaching the age of 18 when they generally transfer to adult services.
The Government is currently considering how best to take forward proposals in Future in mind to deliver system-wide, sustainable transformation as well as the way in which the additional £1.25 billion made available in the 2015 Spring budget for children’s mental health over the course of the current Parliament will be used. However, decisions on how to allocate funding to best meet the needs of individual groups of children and young people will be made locally and reflected in local transformation plans.
A copy of Future in mind is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Tyler of Enfield (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recent assessment they have made of access to mental health professionals with a specialism in attachment disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder for young people over 18 years old who have been in local authority care.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
No assessment has been made of access to mental health professionals with a specialism in attachment disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or autism spectrum disorder for young people over 18 years old who have been in local authority care.
Asked by: Baroness Tyler of Enfield (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the Care Quality Commission's report <i>Right here, right now</i>, what steps they are taking to ensure that local Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat plans are properly funded and implemented in all areas.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government’s Mandate to NHS England sets out clearly that “we expect NHS England to make rapid progress, working with CCGs and other commissioners, to help deliver on our shared goal to have crisis services that, for an individual, are at all times as accessible, responsive and high quality as other health emergency services.” The Mandate also states that the Government expects “every community to have plans to ensure no one in crisis will be turned away” based on the principles set out in the Crisis Care Concordat. The current NHS England planning guidance for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) makes specific reference to the Concordat, as well as asking CCGs to increase their mental health spend this year.
As part of their commitment to the Concordat, we asked the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to undertake a review of the experiences of people receiving crisis care. The report, Right Here, Right Now: Mental health crisis care review, has been placed in the Library and is available at:
http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/right-here-right-now-mental-health-crisis-care-review
The report will inform future inspections as part of the CQC’s new inspection regime. As part of the review, the CQC carried out 15 local area inspections of services that respond to people experiencing a mental health crisis during winter 2014-15. The CQC has now provided feedback to those localities. This feedback and the wider report will enable local partners in these areas, as well as others across the country, to identify areas for improvement which can in turn be addressed through continuously improving Concordat action plans.
The Department, NHS England and Mind are supporting all areas to develop and improve their plans, which were in place throughout England by spring 2015, on an ongoing basis, including in light of the CQC’s review.
The Government has put mental health at the centre of its programme of health reform.
We have increased investment in mental health. Spending on mental health was estimated to increase by £302 million in 2014-15, with total mental health spending rising from £11.362 billion in 2013-14 to £11.664 billion planned in 2014-15, an increase of 0.6% in real terms. We have legislated to put mental health on a par with physical health, and close the health gap between people with mental health problems and the population as a whole.