Charlotte Nichols
Main Page: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)Department Debates - View all Charlotte Nichols's debates with the Department for Work and Pensions
(4 days, 15 hours ago)
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Liz Kendall
The hon. Lady raises an important point. I will look at that and write to her to make sure we address it properly.
Charlotte Nichols (Warrington North) (Lab)
While I accept that it is perfectly possible for people with severe mental health conditions to work with the right support—in Warrington, we already have an employment rate above the Government’s national target—is there not a risk that these proposals are premature and that we are legislating for the mental health services we might hope to have in the future, rather than where these services are today? Does the Secretary of State accept that the issue is not over-diagnosis, but the broken mental health services we inherited?
Liz Kendall
I have always believed we should follow the evidence on this. We have a clear commitment to recruit 8,500 new mental health workers and to have mental health support in every primary and secondary school to prevent problems from happening. We also need to roll out individual placement and support within the NHS. I have seen in my own constituency that it can be life-transforming, but we need to go further and faster to ensure that all people with mental health problems who can work do so.