Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Davies Excerpts

Tuesday 5th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Ben Gummer]

I thank the hon. Lady for bringing her personal experience to the House, and I hope that all is well. She will understand that screening has to be a non-political matter. That is why we have a specific, clinically led committee to look at whether a screening programme should be implemented. It has been looking at NIPTs over the past year and will be making its decision very shortly. On the principle, though, I completely agree with her; it lies at the foundation of the NHS and we support it.

[Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)]

12. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of clinical commissioning group transformation plans in addressing the needs of (a) all vulnerable children, (b) children in the care system, and (c) children who have been abused.

[Mr Speaker]

I think it is a case of wishing the hon. Gentleman a happy birthday.

[Philip Davies]

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker—much appreciated.

Children who have suffered the trauma of abuse may benefit from a range of therapeutic services, but there is a lack of consistent data about the number of abused children in need of therapeutic support and the number of services available. Can the Minister assure me that as part of plans to transform children’s mental health, the needs of abused children will be properly monitored and considered at every level?

[Alistair Burt]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend not only for his question but for previous questions in relation to this area and his obvious interest and concern about it. He is right. Nationally, the numbers of looked-after and abused children in the new prevalence survey—the first since 2004—would be relatively small. We have therefore asked the statisticians to look at different ways of assessing the data and the numbers so that we can address this issue. I hope to be able to report further on that later in the new year after I have had that meeting.