Mental Health Care: Vulnerable Children

Baroness Watkins of Tavistock Excerpts

Tuesday 28th November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I ask the noble Baroness to write to me on that specific case. Of course, health services should never be withheld on such a basis; they should be provided on the basis of need, as we all know. I can confirm that the Green Paper will be published before the end of the year.

[Baroness Watkins of Tavistock (CB)]

My Lords, can the Minister explain why some looked-after children who have been on waiting lists for mental health care and are then transferred out of the area for foster care have to start their wait for access to mental health services again, if we have a National Health Service?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I think this picture of a fragmented service is one that the CQC report highlights. One of the ways in which the Government are trying to address that is through incentive payments in the tariff system to make sure that trusts are incentivised to join up care, particularly when children are moving from place to place.