Mental Health Provision: Children and Young People

Debate between Luciana Berger and Sandy Martin

Tuesday 12th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Luciana Berger]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. We have heard from many Members on both sides of the House about families having to travel hundreds of miles to access treatment. Just last week, I heard of one young person being sent to Scotland to access in-patient treatment for eating disorders, because there was not a bed available for her in England. In certain parts of the country, it is certainly the case that people have to cross boundaries and to go north and south to access services, in a way that we would not accept if this was for physical health services.

Given this growing and what I can only describe as desperate demand for services for young people, I and many others eagerly awaited the Green Paper. I have read it many times, but it was—and I hate to say this—a disappointment. I believe that Ministers have failed to meet the scale of the challenge. The £300 million outlined for mental health support in schools sounds really impressive—until we read the detail and we realise that Ministers aim to reach just a fifth of schools over the next six years, with eight out of 10 schools remaining without the extra support until 2029. It really is a drop in the ocean. Ministers intend to roll out services over the next decade as though there was no urgency or imperative for action. I hardly need to point out that this means that most eight-year-olds today will see no benefit from these proposals throughout their entire childhood and adolescence.

[Sandy Martin (Ipswich) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing this important issue to the House. Does she share my concern about the waiting times between referral for treatment and the start of treatment? Does she agree that much self-harm and, indeed, suicide of young people takes place during that waiting period? Does she believe, as I do, that while four weeks would be an improvement on most of the waiting times that our children and young people have had to face up until now, that maximum wait needs to be upped to until actual treatment and not just until the assessment for treatment?

[Luciana Berger]

My hon. Friend pre-empts a question that I was going to ask of the Minister, because it is not clear whether the pilot that the Government are going to introduce is based on a four-week waiting time for assessment or a four-week waiting time for treatment. Those two things are very different. In many parts of the country, young people will sometimes have an immediate assessment but then have to wait weeks, if not months, to actually access the treatment that they need.