Youth Mental Health Support

Adam Dance Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd June 2026 Westminster Hall

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered youth mental health support.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. There is no doubt that we have a mental health crisis among our children and young people. The statistics are shocking. At the turn of the century, just over 2% of 14 to 24-year-olds had presented to primary care with a mental health problem; by 2023, that figure had risen to around 8%. Similarly, referrals to children and adolescent mental health services have trebled since 2016. Sadly, that is part of a wider decline in children’s happiness. The Children’s Society estimates that five children in a class of 30 are likely to have a mental health problem.

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

This is a very important subject. I have disability issues, and I tried to take my life when I was at school. My youth club saved my life. We really need more youth clubs, but in Somerset we now have none. Does the hon. Lady agree that we need better youth provision in our rural communities?

[Anna Dixon]

I am very sorry to hear about the hon. Gentleman’s experience as a young person. I am very glad that he is with us, and that that support made a life-changing difference. I will come on to say more about the importance of youth services.

Behind the statistics are children and young people who are struggling, families who are stressed and teachers and doctors who are overwhelmed. Many of us will have a personal story of someone we know. My niece suffered with anxiety as a teenager and struggled with the transition to secondary school. She refused to go to school, and her absence was treated as truancy. After years of trying to get support from CAMHS, it was only when she was at a crisis point that she was seen. It took a further two years and several therapists before she was assessed and diagnosed with autism. That was a turning point, and the understanding it gave to both her and the family enabled her to recover and manage her mental health, but those lost years while she was waiting for support are impossible to get back.

Although neurodiversity is not a mental health issue, it can cause mental health issues if undiagnosed and unsupported. One of the top issues raised with me across the Shipley constituency is concern about children and young people’s mental health and the lack of support. As an MP, I am frequently contacted by desperate parents looking for help, particularly parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Poor mental health impacts not just the lives of children and their families but wider society. I was shocked by the recent interim report by Alan Milburn on young people and work. It found that nearly 1 million young people are not in education, employment or training—equivalent to one in eight. Long-term sickness was the primary driver of the increase in youth economic inactivity, and mental health conditions were the most common cause.

Community Pharmacies

Adam Dance Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2026 Westminster Hall

[Rachel Gilmour]

As I said at the beginning, the Minister is a very hands-on Minister, and I am sure he finds every visit absolutely fascinating.

The community pharmacy budget will increase by 10.3% to £3.636 billion. The introduction of independent prescribing into some pharmacy services later this year is a positive step, as are the measures aimed at stabilising the volatile medicines supply system. In the spirit of constructive opposition, I will certainly give credit where credit is due, but we must be honest: the settlement is still far short of what pharmacies need to keep their doors open. Over 600 branches closed last year alone.

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

Pharmacists such as Max, who runs South Petherton pharmacy, are taking care of constituents from the other side of my constituency. Our pharmacies in rural areas are expected to do more and more with little extra help. Does my hon. Friend agree that alongside greater funding, we need to see the Government use the NHS workforce plan to properly expand the pharmacy workforce?

[Rachel Gilmour]

As a rural MP myself, I certainly have a grasp of what my hon. Friend addresses, and I shall come to that in a minute.

Analysis conducted by the Independent Pharmacies Association shows that an average pharmacy dispensing around 10,000 items a month will face a shortfall of approximately £56,000, even after the settlement. Without a commitment to continued above-inflation funding increases year on year, patients will face an acceleration of service reductions and closures. Those closures will fall hardest on communities such as mine and that of my hon. Friend, as I will explain.

My constituents have lived with these difficulties. At a cursory glance, there are 16 pharmacies across Tiverton and Minehead, serving a population of approximately 91,200. On average, they dispense 113,000 prescriptions every month because they are busy, essential, community institutions. Yet a survey of 3,000 people in Tiverton, conducted by a local GP surgery, found that 30% of respondents were unable to find a pharmacy. That should simply not be the case in 21st-century Britain. It cuts to the heart of a fundamental truth about rural healthcare and much more that successive Governments have neglected to confront.

Osteoporosis and Bone Health

Adam Dance Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd April 2026 Westminster Hall

[Sonia Kumar (Dudley) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered osteoporosis and bone health.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. As a practising physiotherapist, I have seen at first hand the profound and often devastating impact that osteoporosis can have on not only the health, but the independence and livelihood of an individual and the lives of those who care for them. For too long, osteoporosis has been dismissed as an unavoidable consequence of ageing, and we have normalised the gradual stoop, the loss of height, and the curvature of the spine. We all recognise the familiar road sign depicting an elderly couple bent double, yet we rarely stop to question what it truly represents.

In reality, it is not a benign or natural process. It is often the visible consequence of repeated, preventable spinal fractures, where the bone of the spine collapses under pressure. This is not an unavoidable decline; it is, in many cases, a preventable harm.

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

Constituents such as Susan have suffered pain and changes to their life because of osteoporosis. Does the hon. Member share the concern of both Susan and I: that we will not see proper fracture liaison services in overlooked rural areas without a fully funded implementation plan to end the postcode lottery for these services?

[Sonia Kumar]

I believe that we should be rolling those services out across the entire country, and I will come on to that in the rest of my speech. I am sure that the Minister will also comment on that.

Maternity Commissioner

Adam Dance Excerpts

Monday 20th April 2026 Westminster Hall

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank the hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) for his excellent opening speech. I declare an interest as a member of the all-party groups on patient safety, on baby loss, on maternity and on birth trauma. Campaigners such as Theo Clarke, Louise Thompson and many more mothers and families over the years have been fighting tirelessly for the improvements that we desperately need in our NHS maternity services.

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

After lots of campaigning and hard work by NHS staff, Yeovil maternity unit will reopen tomorrow. The lessons learned from the closure of our unit will be included in the current national review into maternity services, but does my hon. Friend agree that the only way recommendations from the review will be properly implemented is with a national maternity commissioner and more consultant midwives?

[Helen Morgan]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention—he was quick off the mark. Yes, I agree that it will be useful to have a maternity commissioner to share those experiences and ensure that people learn from them.

The campaigners, Theo and Louise, have shared their heartbreaking experiences. I commend their work in securing this important debate. Liberal Democrats wish to be their allies. As a previous co-chair of the APPG on baby loss, I am all too familiar with the acute need for better standards of care for mothers across the country. I was also a member of the APPG on birth trauma when it was headed so ably by Theo Clarke, when the need for a maternity commissioner was first discussed and recommended. I am delighted to see the traction that this proposal has had thanks to the campaigning of Theo, Louise and many others.

Last month, the Lib Dems launched our maternity rescue package, which would guarantee high-quality care wherever people live and would make Britain the safest country in the world to have a baby.

Endometriosis Services

Adam Dance Excerpts

Tuesday 24th March 2026 Westminster Hall

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

I thank the hon. Member for Ipswich (Jack Abbott) for securing this vital debate, and the public who are attending in the Gallery.

“I believe you have endometriosis.” When Ami heard those words, she broke down in tears, not because she was scared but because, after 22 long years of unbelievable pain—of being dismissed or told, “It’s your weight,” or, “You are too stressed”—someone finally believed her. In January this year, she had surgery, which confirmed that she had endometriosis. It had progressed so far that both her fallopian tubes were blocked. She is now permanently infertile. Just like that, her dream of starting her own family was over, not because she did not try or because nothing was wrong, but because she was ignored and dismissed. Understandably, that is something that she can never forgive or forget.

Identifying endometriosis is complex, but Ami and too many other women have been utterly failed by our health service. I have one constituent who was so routinely misdiagnosed that it was implied she just had a sexually transmitted infection. Olivia has been waiting in limbo for six months at a time to find out if she can get a diagnosis appointment anywhere in Somerset.

It is a disgrace that women feel that their voice is not enough when it comes to their own health. It is obvious that awareness of endometriosis is far too low among the public and healthcare professionals. Women are waiting far too long to get access to diagnosis and treatment services.

I have two asks for the Minister on behalf of Ami, Olivia and many other women in Yeovil who have gone through the unthinkable. First, will she work with experts and patients to develop better public health messaging, awareness campaigns and greater training for primary healthcare professionals on endometriosis? Secondly, will she meet Ami and others to discuss their cases and explore how the NHS can not only learn from them but formally apologise and offer redress?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mrs Hodgson]

That was an excellent intervention, I have to say; I am glad that we will all be out of here in time to go and enjoy that. For the ladies and gentlemen in the Gallery, do not worry: it is free entry and no invite is needed. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Ms Oppong-Asare) for all she does on women’s health. She has led the way, more than most in Parliament, on the issue in her time here. That is recognised, and I thank her for it.

We are hopefully shifting the centre of gravity of care from hospitals to communities, with neighbourhood services designed around local need. Earlier this month, we published a neighbourhood health framework, setting out three reform agendas for ICBs, local authorities and civil society to deliver the aims of neighbourhood health. We have done this to improve services for people who need routine healthcare; to improve proactive care, including maintaining and developing access to women’s health services; and to deliver better alternatives to hospital care.

[Adam Dance]

Ami is at home watching, and thanks everyone for speaking, but one of the things she said would help her is continuity in seeing the same GP. As we heard earlier, it took 22 years for her to be diagnosed. The other issue she faces is that she cannot have children, and raising the limit for fertility treatment would be helpful. Will the Minister arrange to meet Ami with me?

[Mrs Hodgson]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for bringing the details of Ami’s case to us. Waiting 22 years for a diagnosis is shocking, and I suppose it would have been very difficult to have continuity of care over such a long time, but I take on board the point that he makes. When we—myself included—go to the GP, we often see a different person every time. As I said, this is not my brief, so I will feed his request for a meeting back to the Minister for Secondary Care. I cannot promise on her behalf, but we have heard his request.

The framework I was just outlining provides clarity and consistency, supporting joined-up partnership between ICBs and local authorities, working together to develop locally led neighbourhood health plans. This will hopefully address some of the concerns raised by the hon. Member for Yeovil (Adam Dance) about continuity of care.

Since coming into office, this Government have delivered over 5 million extra appointments in our first year; reduced the numbers on gynaecological waiting lists by over 24,000 women; and given women easier access to the morning-after pill, free of charge. A lot done; a lot more to do. We have made strong progress in turning the commitments in the last Government’s women’s health strategy, which the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth highlighted, into tangible action. Our renewed strategy will set out how this Government are taking further steps to improve women’s health as we deliver the 10-year health plan. It will address gaps from the 2022 strategy, and go further to create a system that listens to women, tackles health inequalities and makes progress on conditions such as endometriosis.

Renewing the strategy will help identify and remove enduring barriers to high-quality care, such as long waits for diagnosis, and will ensure professionals listen and respond to women’s needs. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich for bringing forward this important debate, and all hon. Members for sharing so many of their constituents’ stories. I give special thanks to Monica and all the women who are in the Public Gallery to bear witness and push us to do more. We have heard them, and I commit to doing what I can to ensure that their efforts have not been in vain.

ADHD Diagnosis

Adam Dance Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2026 Westminster Hall

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I declare interests as vice-chair of the ADHD all-party parliamentary group, and as someone with ADHD. I congratulate the hon. Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson) on securing this important debate. It is good to hear and see so many Members here today—we have seen that with the time limit; I think we could have spoken for a good two to three hours on this.

The most important thing this debate has done is highlight the importance of ADHD diagnosis. It makes me so angry when I hear the media or politicians talk about a “crisis of overdiagnosis”. As the NHS ADHD taskforce report tells us, the evidence is clear:

“ADHD is under-recognised, under-diagnosed and under-treated (including with medication).”

[Vikki Slade (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)]

I think my hon. Friend would agree that the Minister needs to hear that in places such as Dorset whole conditions are being ignored. We have the same situation as Suffolk; shared care agreements for ADHD, bariatric services, eating disorders and gender dysphoria are being cancelled, and whole cohorts of people are not being given GP services. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is outrageous?

[Adam Dance]

I completely agree. We have seen this issue across the board with lots of conditions, and I thank my hon. Friend for mentioning it.

Higher diagnosis rates over recent years reflect greater awareness, not an overdiagnosis crisis. As someone with severe ADHD, I can tell Members the life-changing difference that an ADHD diagnosis can make. That is why I am standing here today. But I am one of the lucky ones: too many people with ADHD are not having their needs identified or supported. That is the real crisis. As of March 2025, over 500,000 people were waiting for an ADHD diagnosis. In Somerset, the average wait time is around two and a half years, if someone is lucky.

Like many hon. Members, I see first hand the dire consequences of the crisis. A constituent who I cannot name reached out to me about her son who, like many nowadays, went through school without having ADHD diagnosed, despite his family constantly fighting for support. The bright lad recently left school without qualifications, but he was dismissed by his teachers as “challenging.” The lack of support left him vulnerable and hopeless. Now he is suspected of getting mixed up with county lines gangs, which is something that we see far too often.

It breaks my heart, because my constituent’s case is not exceptional. Around 25% of people in our prisons have ADHD—although, that is probably an underestimation. As I found out in a response to a written question, the Ministry of Justice does not centrally hold data on the number of people in prisons with ADHD. I have heard from so many people, including those who are not able to work or have come out of prison, who said that if they had their ADHD identified and got a little bit of help, their life could have gone so differently.

For those interested only in the impact on state finances, the estimated economic cost of not identifying and treating ADHD is around £17 billion to the UK economy, although I think that is seriously underestimated. That is why it is important that we identify people’s needs early, and that is why I have put forward a Bill calling for universal screening for neurodivergence in primary school-age children. That is a cost and time-effective way to identify every child’s needs early and put in place non-medical interventions that do not require diagnosis, such as changes to teacher training. It would also provide high-quality data for medical references where necessary. That last point is really important. At my SEND roundtable, a local paediatrician told me that a huge barrier to formally identifying and supporting needs early is the lack of high-quality data, information sharing across the sector and non-medical interventions. I hope the Minister will tell us whether universal screening of neurodiversity will be considered in the important review of ADHD and autism or the schools White Paper.

We cannot just stop identifying needs early. For many with ADHD, a formal medical diagnosis is vital, as it opens treatment pathways, accommodation at school or work, and state support. That is why the Liberal Democrats call on the Government to provide greater funding to integrated care boards so that they can accept and treat new ADHD patients. We especially need greater support for community-based projects and services for those living with ADHD. In Somerset, we are getting new programmes, but we need the funding to roll them out and to recruit and retain more professionals in the NHS to diagnose and support ADHD. Will the Minister reassure us that any reforms to clinical pathways for ADHD will not see communities and the ICBs that serve them lose any funding and support? Will he also update us on the progress that NHS Digital has made on the NHS improvement programme?

Oral Answers to Questions

Adam Dance Excerpts

Tuesday 13th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his advocacy on this matter. I know that it has been taken seriously by NHS leaders nationally as well as locally, and they listen carefully to what he says on behalf of his constituents. I have reported to the House this morning on all the action we are taking to drive improvement. We are seeing improvement, but there is so much more to do. We are determined to consign corridor care to the history books, and not just in Ashford but right across the country.

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

Access to mental health services in rural communities is a challenge when services are stretched and underfunded. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to improve access to mental health services in Yeovil?

[Wes Streeting]

The Government increased investment in mental health by an extra £688 million in 2025, with all systems forecast to deliver the mental health investment standard. As our medium-term plan makes clear, we need a new approach to mental health to drive down waits and improve the quality of care, but our expectation is that integrated care boards will be required to protect mental health spending in real terms, rising in line with inflation year on year, ensuring that we meet the needs of constituents in all parts of the country.

Therapeutic Play and Children’s Healthcare

Adam Dance Excerpts

Tuesday 6th January 2026 Westminster Hall

[Mr Bailey]

I thank the hon. Member for his powerful intervention. He is a massive champion for his local hospital. I agree that we should not rely simply on charity and that this issue should be looked at, which is the aim of the debate.

When the specialist invited Hari to play with her, Sarah told me that the change was immediate. She said:

“I saw my little Hari emerge again, play was bringing him back to us, in that dark tiny room I saw his light come back. This turning point became a moment that I held on to throughout the entirety of his childhood cancer journey.”

Sarah had to fight for that essential part of Hari’s care throughout the two and a half years of that journey. She understandably saw play as the most important therapeutic tool, but for many clinicians, medical treatments came first—even to the detriment of Hari’s mental health and wellbeing.

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

Play therapy services in Yeovil that support adopted children and those in kinship care are struggling due to cuts to the adoption and special guardianship support fund. Services have been reduced and therapists like Lilly have gone months without being paid. Does the hon. Member agree that that situation is unacceptable, and that more needs to be done to ensure funding models for play therapy services are sustainable, ethical and child centred?

[Mr Bailey]

I thank the hon. Member for his powerful intervention. I hope that we hear from the Minister how such services can be sustained, given some of the shortfalls that have been described.

In reality, medicine and play are not in competition. When clinicians took playful approaches or when health play specialists were involved, Hari was far more willing to engage with difficult treatments, helping them to go much more smoothly. The culmination of that was an MRI scan that Hari did, fully awake, at four years old, avoiding the need for general anaesthetic. The health play specialist prepared Hari for this potentially scary and challenging ordeal by playing with a Lego scan machine, and playing the sound of an MRI while talking him through that process.

Budget Resolutions

Adam Dance Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

The topic of today’s debate is investment and renewal, but that is not what people in Yeovil are thinking about after this Budget. For my constituents, including many local business people who came to meet me yesterday, this is the “Why bother?” Budget. “Why bother?”, people in Yeovil ask after the weeks of leaks, briefings and flip-flopping on the Budget. As David, who supports small and medium-sized business in my constituency, said, all it did in Yeovil was create uncertainty and damage investment. Once we got the Budget, people in Yeovil were left asking, “Why do we bother to trust this Government?”

There were some welcome but long overdue measures, such as those that make online gambling companies pay their fair share, which is good; reduce energy bills, which is good; and lift children out of poverty. However, the Government promised to grow our economy without taxing working people, and the OBR is clear that the Budget has almost no meaningful growth measures at all. What it has is a freeze on income tax thresholds, which is a stealth tax on working people in Yeovil. Similarly, a 3p a mile tax on electric cars will have a disproportionate impact on drivers in my rural constituency, leaving them thinking, “Why bother going electric at all?”

From speaking to business people across my constituency over the last few days, it is clear that so many are left asking, “Why do we bother at all?” Gareth, who owns the Cow and Apple, told me that he asks himself why he bothered battling to keep his business going over the last five years, just for the Government to take and take without even listening, let alone supporting businesses like his. Businesses such as the Cake Box in Yeovil are left in an impossible position. Last year, its business rates went through the roof, and it had to make staff redundant. Because of this Budget, it may have to make more redundancies or increase prices, both of which would damage business. While the Government want to introduce lower business rates multipliers, that is not enough, particularly if higher valuations just cancel out those lower multipliers.

Ultimately, people in my constituency are left asking, “Why bother with a Budget that doesn’t deliver what this country really needs?” What we really need is growth in the economy, and we needed some ambition from the Chancellor, so here are some policies the Government should have bothered with: a windfall tax on the quantitative easing parts of the profits that big banks have received, raising £30 billion for taxpayers over five and a half years; an increase in the digital services tax on social media giants; replacing the broken business rates system with a commercial landowner levy; a reversal of the damaging national insurance and family farm tax rises; and a 5% reduction in VAT for businesses in the hospitality sector over the next 17 months to keep them afloat—that is it: to keep them afloat. Finally, we need a better trade deal with the EU, as Liberal Democrats have been calling for, which could raise more than £25 billion.

The Government have failed to deliver any new ideas just when we need them most, so they should please just steal ours. Our communities need more and they deserve better.

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

Adam Dance Excerpts

Wednesday 19th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Adam Dance (Yeovil) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wells and Mendip Hills (Tessa Munt) for securing this vital debate and for her campaigning on this issue. In the brief time I have today, I will share the story of Iona, who was finally diagnosed with ME in 2019 after being unwell since 2014. Her ME comes with a range of horrible symptoms from physical and mental fatigue to muscle weakness. She was housebound for four years and cannot do anything independently. However, she told me that the biggest barrier to support is other people’s limited or incorrect knowledge of ME, which is damaging. She says:

“As a chronically ill young woman…I am constantly looked down on and dismissed, while at the same time expected to act as if I am not disabled”.

[Mr Tom Morrison (Cheadle) (LD)]

One of my constituents, Nick, has ME and has described feeling as though he is stuck in a well without anyone to pull him out. Does my hon. Friend agree that there needs to be more action from Government, the NHS, businesses, schools and colleges to counter the misunderstanding and neglect that ME sufferers receive?

[Adam Dance]

I agree. It is really important that the Government provide more support for ME, because it affects the lives of a lot of people.

[Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way, from one Adam to another. I want to give a shout out to ME Group Staffordshire, which does wonderful work in supporting my constituents and people in the surrounding areas, and does so much to challenge the stigma that many people living with ME face on a daily basis, as the hon. Gentleman talked about. As the Minister looks to provide the support that we are all calling for today, I hope that she will consider extending it to those groups and communities that support people with ME, including some of my constituents.

[Adam Dance]

I agree that we need lots more support groups across the country. It is really good that the hon. Member has one in his constituency.

Iona’s school offered her no help; indeed, it told her that she would fail all her GCSEs. She went to her GP and other doctors many times but was told that she was “anxious and did not know it”, that she “did not want to go to school”, that she “was depressed” or even that “nothing was wrong” with her at all. Anyone who knew Iona knew that that was ridiculous. She is a positive, determined, intelligent and hard-working person, and it is only because of her determination that she finally received support—she got it only because she and her family kept pushing for it. People should not have to be medics or administrative experts to get the support that they need.

Even after Iona received some support, limited knowledge meant that she was told to do graded exercise therapy, which did her more harm than good. Eventually, the Somerset ME service provided helpful advice and medical letters that unlocked support in education and from the council. However, that service is a short-term service that cannot provide medical care, and Iona has often found that GPs do not understand the nature of the service. Today, she still receives little or no medical help.

It is great that the NHS has rolled out training on ME, but people such as Iona who have ME and who have lost trust in the health system need to know how we can monitor the uptake of that training to change attitudes and reduce stigma among the medical profession. That is so important, yet more broadly the ME delivery plan lacks clear accountability structures, has no proper way to measure impact and has no clear deadline to meet. I hope that the Minister can respond to those concerns today.

Greater funding and support for research are also vital. Germany has pledged €500 million to research ME and find a cure for it. It is time that this country also stepped up and showed the same ambition. We owe Iona and all those with ME at least that much. In fact, Iona herself wants to contribute to such research and is now at university, studying hard after achieving fantastic results at school. People with ME are not asking for much; they just want to be believed and to receive the support they deserve. It is about time they got that support.

[David Mundell (in the Chair)]

With apologies to other Members who wished to speak, I now call the Lib Dem spokesperson.