Children’s Mental Health

Debate between Caroline Johnson and Maggie Throup

Tuesday 8th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Maggie Throup]

I will make progress because we are short of time and I want to give plenty of time for Back Benchers to contribute.

More than 420,000 children and young people were treated through NHS-commissioned mental health community services in 2020-21, which was almost 100,000 more than three years ago. The NHS children and young people’s mental health workforce has seen growth of 40% from 11,000 whole-time equivalents in 2019 to 15,486 whole-time equivalents in 2021.

Early intervention and mental wellbeing support in schools and colleges can prevent poor mental wellbeing from developing into mental illness. We remain committed to the proposals set out in the Green Paper to roll out mental health support teams based in schools and colleges and staffed by mental health professionals. There are now more than 280 teams set up or in training, with 183 of those teams operational and ready to support young people in around 3,000 schools and colleges. I am really pleased that we have been able to accelerate that programme to meet our original target a year early and then reach around 35% of pupils through 399 mental health support teams by 2023.

[Dr Caroline Johnson (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

A number of parents in my constituency have contacted me with worries about their children and how best they can support them. We know that parental support in the family can lead to great improvements in children’s mental health. What information is the Minister making available to parents on how best they can support their children when they are having difficulties with their health?

[Maggie Throup]

My hon. Friend makes a really good point, and I know that she has lots of experience on this issue from a clinician’s point of view. She is right to say that families play a very important role. In her absence, may I offer my hon. Friend a meeting with the Minister for Care and Mental Health, because she will be able to go into much more detail than I can at the Dispatch Box?

Vaccination Strategy

Debate between Caroline Johnson and Maggie Throup

Wednesday 12th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dr Caroline Johnson (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

I declare my interest as a consultant paediatrician working in the NHS and as a volunteer vaccinator. I am very proud to be part of the vaccination programme that has undoubtedly saved so very many lives.

I want to focus on children. I have worked in hospital over the past month and have been looking after children who have had positive tests. That is not unexpected because the virus is high in the population and of course we test everybody. However, I have not been looking after children who were admitted because of covid. In September, we heard that the decision on whether to offer children vaccines was finely balanced. Indeed, the JCVI referred that decision to the chief medical officers, who finally decided, on the basis of educational disruption, to offer children vaccines. Given that omicron is less harmful than the variants we were considering at the time, has the Minister asked the JCVI and the CMOs to consider whether these vaccines are still, on balance, better for children than not—except, perhaps, in the context of travel?

[Maggie Throup]

I thank my hon. Friend for her role in vaccinating probably thousands of people by now. Everybody has played their part, using their skills and their time to roll out the vaccination programme in such an amazing way. I assure my hon. Friend, who obviously has an awful lot of expertise and knowledge, that JCVI continually looks at the data. We hear announcements from the JCVI and think they are just about what it has considered on that particular day, but I assure the House that it continually looks at the data to make sure that we move forward in the right manner.

Smoking Cessation: Prescription of E-cigarettes

Debate between Caroline Johnson and Maggie Throup

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Maggie Throup]

The hon. Gentleman is quite right that our goal is to help people to stop smoking completely. My heart goes out to him regarding the story about his mother. My father was a smoker and it damaged his health as well. We all have these personal stories. The evidence is clear that e-cigarettes are less harmful to health than smoking tobacco and are an effective way to help people to stop smoking, but, as the hon. Gentleman said, there is always more to be done.

[Dr Caroline Johnson (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

History has shown us that an absence of evidence of long-term harm is not the same as evidence of absence of long-term harm. Indeed, in the 1940s, conventional cigarettes were considered healthy. With that in mind, how will the Minister ensure that children are protected from breathing in the vapes of e-cigarettes, prescribed or otherwise, and that their prescription by a doctor is not seen as a green light that they are healthy, encouraging uptake among teenagers?

[Maggie Throup]

My hon. Friend is right that e-cigarettes are just a gateway to stopping smoking completely. That is the ultimate goal. We want to ensure that people go from smoking to e-cigarettes, and then to no smoking at all.