Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what spending is allocated across all departments to supporting individuals who are defined by themselves or others as neurodiverse.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

This specific data is not held centrally. The 2025 Spending Review prioritised health, with record investment in the health and social care system. The Spending Review announced that annual National Health Service day-to-day spending will increase by £29 billion in real terms, a £53 billion cash increase, by 2028/29 compared to 2023/24. This will take the NHS resource budget to £226 billion by 2028/29, the equivalent to a 3% average annual real terms growth rate over the Spending Review period.

However, the Government has been clear that this investment must come with reform. We will completely reorient the NHS’s operating model, so it is focussed on the most important things, better outcomes for patients.

NHS England is responsible for determining allocations of financial resources to integrated care boards (ICBs). Funding for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism assessments are included within NHS England’s financial allocations to ICBs. The process of setting allocations is informed by the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation, an independent committee that provides advice to NHS England on setting the target formula which impacts how allocations are distributed over time. ICB allocations for 2026/27 to 2028/29 were published on 17 November 2025 and are available on the NHS England website.

Through the Medium-term planning framework, published 24 October, NHS England has set clear expectations for local ICBs and trusts to improve access, experience, and outcomes for autism and ADHD services over the next three years, focusing on improving quality and productivity.

On Monday 23 February, the Government published the Schools White Paper, Every child achieving and thriving, and a consultation document on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) reforms, with both documents being available on the GOV.UK website. SEND reforms begin with significant upfront investment, joint planning, and a lead in period to build system capacity ahead of legislation. As part of these reforms, £4 billion is being invested over the next three years to make schools more inclusive, including £1.8 billion over three years for the new Experts at Hand offer which will bring health and education professionals into schools to upskill education staff and enable earlier intervention.

The Experts at Hand offer builds on the emerging evidence from programmes such as Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools, which show the benefits of embedding health and other specialist professionals in mainstream settings to support settings to be more inclusive and to de-escalate need.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 21 November 2024 (HLWS240), in which clauses of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (1) the loophole which means the Act goes beyond its intended reforms to valuation, and (2) the omission that would deny shared ownership leaseholders the right to extend their lease with their direct landlord, are found.

Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The valuation loophole is contained in Schedule 4, paragraph 17(2) of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. The omission related to shared ownership will require new provisions to be added to the Act.

As set out in the WMS of 27 January 2026 HLWS1278 (attached), the government will rectify these flaws in primary legislation.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 5 February (HL13750), what is the evidence base that there is a stigma around mental health in schools that requires intervention by the Government.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The importance of reducing the stigma around mental health is widely recognised, backed up by evidence such as the Lancet Commission on Ending Stigma and Discrimination in Mental Health, published in 2022, and is frequently highlighted as a key issue by stakeholders and service users. The findings are available on the Lancet Commission’s website.

The initial Mental Health Support Team (MHST) evaluation, the Early evaluation of the Children and Young People's Mental Health Trailblazer programme from 2023, and the more recently published Findings from surveys of schools and colleges and Mental Health Support Teams from 2025, both found overwhelmingly positive support for MHSTs from education staff. This data is available on page 21 of the attached document.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of people who use the Access to Work scheme for mental health support have a diagnosed condition.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not held centrally and extracting this information would require manual examination of individual records and exceed the cost limit.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much has been spent on mental health support as part of the Access to Work scheme in each of the past five years, broken down by mental health condition.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Although the Department holds information on the mental health conditions of Access to Work customers and the specific types of support they receive, information on specific mental health conditions and how much has been spent on mental health support is not readily accessible. The required information is recorded as descriptive free-text information and extracting it would require manual review of individual records.

While we cannot provide total expenditure on mental health support, the Access to Work official statistics do report expenditure for customers whose primary medical condition is a mental health condition, as well as for the Mental Health Support Service, as seen in the table below.

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 27 January (HL13547), what is the expected completion date of the review of the Equality and Human Rights Commission draft Code of Practice.

Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The EHRC has submitted its draft Code to Ministers, and we are reviewing it with the care it deserves. It is crucial that providers have legally robust guidance on how to apply the Equality Act, which is why we are considering the draft Code properly.

We have always been clear that the proper process needs to be followed. The Code will have implications for service providers up and down the country so it is important that we get this right.

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government what mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions are protected from discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 within public sector services.

Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Equality Act 2010 (the Act) defines disability as a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. The Act defines long-term in this context as having lasted, or being likely to last for at least 12 months, or likely to last for the rest of the life of the person.

Mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions can therefore meet the Act’s definition, where their impact is in line with these requirements.

Where a person's condition meets the Act’s definition, the employment provisions in the Act make it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against disabled employees and applicants.

The Act makes it clear that businesses and public bodies that provide goods and services must not unlawfully discriminate against disabled people, including those who may not have physical disabilities.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether there is sufficient clinical evidence to justify the use of public money to diagnose someone as neurodiverse.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting MP) announced on 4 December 2025 the launch of an Independent Review into Prevalence and Support for Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism. This independent review will inform our new approach to mental health, so people receive the right support, at the right time and in the right place. Likewise, the review will inform our approach so that people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autistic people have the right support in place to enable them to live well in their communities.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the lessons to be learned from the special educational needs reforms introduced by the government of Wales; and what consideration they have given to introducing similar reforms in England.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The department has already consulted with colleagues in the Welsh government on analysis published in the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) consultation document comparing rates of special education needs across both nations. The use of data to assess the efficacy of the Welsh SEND reforms introduced in 2021 was not feasible due to variation at school and local authority level.

We will continue to work with the devolved governments as we progress the proposals set out in the SEND consultation document, as well as preparations for future legislation, to ensure that legislative impacts are fully understood and addressed.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 27 January (HL13548), what assessment they have made of the causes of the increase in the (1) proportion, and (2) number, of school children educated in special schools in the past ten years.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Assessments by the Education Select Committee, Public Accounts Committee and National Audit Office highlight common challenges across the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system that mean children and young people do not get the effective early intervention they need and leave parents struggling to secure appropriate support.

As set out in our ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ White Paper, the government is seeking to reshape the SEND system to make all mainstream early years settings, schools and colleges truly inclusive. We are also investing billions of pounds to adapt classrooms and corridors, train teachers, educators and assistants, and bring experts like speech and language therapists into settings.

We are consulting on these proposals and will continue to work with a wide range of partners to refine them and deliver them.

The department collects and publishes figures on the number and proportion of pupils in special schools. The number of pupils in special schools (State-funded and non-maintained) has increased from 109,177 in 2015/16 to 169,630 in 2024/25. This is an increase of 60,453. The proportion of pupils in special schools was 1.3% in 2015/16 and 1.9% in 2024/25, an increase of 0.6 percentage points.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 27 January (HL13548), how many special educational needs and disabilities places in schools were provided as a result of mental health, anxiety and depression factors in each of the past five years.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The government is committed to supporting local areas to create high-quality places that are suitable to meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We want more pupils to access the right support in a local mainstream setting, enabling them to learn alongside their peers and siblings, instead of travelling a long way to a special school.

​The department is investing at least £3.7 billion in high needs capital funding between 2025/2026 and 2029/2030, to support local authorities to provide places for children and young people with SEND, or who require alternative provision.

​Specialist places for pupils with special educational needs are not provided on the basis of specific distinct needs. The department publishes data on the breakdown of pupils by their recorded primary need type and school type on gov.uk although this may not fully reflect the total number of pupils who experience mental health difficulties, anxieties or depression. The department also publishes data on specialist placement capacity on gov.uk since 2023 but this is not broken down by type of need.