Asked by: Paula Sherriff (Labour - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of (a) internet trolling and (b) online abuse on people’s psychological wellbeing.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
This Government is clear that online abuse of any kind is unacceptable. Social media can be a way of making positive social connections, and should never be used as a platform to abuse or bully individuals. Evidence has shown links between certain increases in social media use and poorer mental health, however it is not clear whether increased use causes poorer mental health. For example, it is possible that poorer mental health drives an increase in use of social media. To better understand the relationship between social media and the mental health of children and young people up to 25 years old, the Chief Medical Officer is leading a review to examine all relevant international research in the area. The review will inform a report from the Chief Medical Officer, expected for publication next year.
To help tackle some of these issues, we have talked to social media companies about taking concrete action, particularly in the areas of improved age verification for underage children, tackling long periods online and harmful content. We understand that companies have existing work in place in these areas, and that there are significant challenges, but we are keen for further action to be taken. This is why the former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (the. Rt. hon. Jeremy Hunt) asked social media companies to set out their formal positions on this work and how they envisage we could work together to make further progress. We have received a number of responses and we are working closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as we consider our next steps, and they work with the Home Office on a White Paper on Internet Harms, following their consultation on internet safety.
Asked by: Paula Sherriff (Labour - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the implementation of Local Transformation Plans for child and adolescent mental health services; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Every clinical commissioning group (CCG), working closely with their partners, including children, young people and their families, has developed local transformation plans to transform their local offer for mental health and well-being services for children and young people. Local transformation plans require refreshing and republishing on each CCG’s website, at least annually. All CCGs provided assurance via NHS England Regions that plans had been updated and republished for 2017/18 as part of routine planning processes.
Local transformation plans now form part of sustainability and transformation partnerships.
Asked by: Paula Sherriff (Labour - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether funding for the implementation of proposals relating to the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Green Paper will be in addition to funding for the implementation of the Future in Mind strategy.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The £300 million to implement the key proposals set out in our recent health and education Green Paper on children and young people’s mental health is in addition to the £1.4 billion that has been made available towards delivering Future in Mind.
Asked by: Paula Sherriff (Labour - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the £1.25 billion allocated for the implementation of the Future in Mind strategy has been spent in each year of the strategy to date; and what plans he has to spend the remaining funding between now and 2020-21.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Following the publication of Future in Mind in 2015, the Government committed to making £1.25 billion available to transform services for children and young people’s mental health, excluding funding for eating disorders. The total spending for children and young people’s mental health, excluding eating disorders and perinatal mental health, was £173 million in 2015/16, £240 million in 2016/17 and £249 million in 2017/18.
The planned spending for each of the 2018/19 and 2019/20 is £250 million per year, excluding eating disorders.
Asked by: Paula Sherriff (Labour - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) children and (b) adolescents admitted to out of area mental health beds in 2017-18.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
This information is not available in the format requested. The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Tier 4 Report, NHS England, 2014 includes the latest available analysis of out of area placements for children and young people and is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/camhs-tier-4-rep.pdf
On 31 March 2017, NHS England announced the next steps to ensure children and young people do not have to travel far from home for mental health care. As well as funding between 150 and 180 new beds, we are increasing the availability of services in the community to ensure the right beds are in the right place. This includes a programme of work to improve timely treatments in the community for those needing urgent or emergency assessment as well as the development of, and recruitment for, community eating disorder services.
Asked by: Paula Sherriff (Labour - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the amount of sick leave taken by staff in his Department due to mental health causes in the last two years for which data is available.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger) on 30 April 2018 to Question 138036.
Asked by: Paula Sherriff (Labour - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letter of the 9 January 2018 from the hon Member for Dewsbury on visiting health care services in Dewsbury constituency.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The office of my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State responded to the hon. Member on 8 February 2018. As their reply stated, my Rt. hon. Friend plans to visit Dewsbury, but dates are yet to be confirmed.
Asked by: Paula Sherriff (Labour - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2018 to Question 121741, if he will publish a list of the names and catchment areas of the 70 new or enhanced community eating disorder services for children and young people.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
For children and young people aged between eight and 18 years, the Government is investing £150 million to expand eating disorder services and staff for 70 extended or new established community eating disorder services.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is maintaining a directory of community eating disorder services for children and young people. This is available at:
Many clinical commissioning groups have made available details of coverage of community eating disorder services in joint agency Local Transformation Plans, these plans are now part of Sustainability and Transformation Plans.
Asked by: Paula Sherriff (Labour - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects the referral from Calderdale and Kirklees Joint Health Scrutiny Committee relating to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary to be considered.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has written to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel requesting they undertake an initial assessment and report their findings by 26 February. We will then make an announcement about next steps in due course.
Asked by: Paula Sherriff (Labour - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report of the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman, Ignoring the alarms: how NHS eating disorder services are failing patients, HC 634, what steps he is taking to address the gaps in provision of eating disorders specialists.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
For children and young people aged between eight and 18 years, the Government is investing £150 million to expand eating disorder services and staff – with 70 new or enhanced services already in place.
The Government’s aim is for the National Health Service to meet the access and waiting time standard for children and young people with an eating disorder by 2020/21 so that 95% of children with an eating disorder will receive treatment within one week for urgent cases and within four weeks for routine cases. NHS England has published a Commissioning Guide that sets out its recommended staffing and training requirements for these services. This is available at:
We are on track to meet the eating disorders waiting time target. 68.7% of children and young people are currently being seen within one week and 78.9% within four weeks (against target of 95% for both by 2020/21).
For adults, NHS England is conducting a baseline audit to measure existing levels of investment, capacity and activity across inpatient and community services for adults with eating disorders.
NHS England will develop evidence based treatment pathways across mental health services over the next five years in line with the recommendations of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. NHS England is working with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health to ensure that each pathway is fully informed by the available evidence and the views of experts by experience.