Self-harm: Young People

Baroness Tyler of Enfield Excerpts

Monday 28th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I definitely share my noble friend’s concern about what is a worrying trend, and I can confirm that I am aware of the research to which he refers. In addition to the suicide prevention strategy, we are providing access to a specialist mental health professional in every school in England. We are rolling out Young Futures hubs and recruiting 8,500 mental health workers, and we continue to fund and benefit from the multi-centre study of self-harm to inform the development of policy and clinical practice, in order to tackle the very real and serious problem that my noble friend describes.

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield (LD)]

My Lords, we know that self-harm is most common amongst 15 to 24 year-olds, particularly young women. As we have already heard, there are so many challenges in accessing the mental health support that young people need that often, they cannot get it before their mental health problems get worse. The Minister already referred to the rollout of Young Futures hubs. Can she tell the House when there will be such a hub in every local area, to ensure that young people can access the support they need at the earliest signs of emerging mental health problems?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is quite right that it is unacceptable that too many children and young people are not receiving the mental health care they need. Our determination to change that, as she says, is about rolling out Young Futures hubs in communities. We are at an early stage of developing the plans, and I very much look forward to continuing to work across government to deliver this and to updating your Lordships’ House.