Oral Answers to Questions

Robbie Moore Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Kinnock]

I pay tribute to Anya for the outstanding work she is doing. We are providing early intervention for children’s mental health and wellbeing by rolling out mental health support teams to every school by 2029. We are also investing £13 million to pilot enhanced training for staff so that they can offer more support to young people with complex needs such as trauma, neurodivergence and disordered eating. If the hon. Lady writes to me with further details of Anya’s work, I am sure that we can continue that conversation.

[Robbie Moore (Keighley and Ilkley) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to increase access to care in the community.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (James Murray)]

This Government’s focus on shifting from hospital to community will benefit millions of people and increase access to care. This shift is underpinned by new community diagnostic centres that now deliver faster, more accessible care at 109 sites, 12 hours a day, seven days a week. By 2030, we will have opened 120 new neighbourhood health centres. This expansion will transform community access for those who most need it.

[Robbie Moore]

Back in 2023, the Conservative Government signed off £3.4 million for Keighley to build a new health and wellbeing hub to improve care in the community. We have plenty of brownfield sites and funding is secured, but we are progressing at a snail’s pace, with progress being made incredibly slowly. We are now in mid-2026, and no planning application has yet been submitted. Will the Secretary of State meet me so that we can unlock the project and get it delivered?

[James Murray]

This may not be the first project initiated under the last Government that has not exactly run ahead at the fastest pace possible. We need to ensure that neighbourhood health provision is delivered as quickly as possible across the country. Our plans to increase the number of neighbourhood health centres will focus on areas with below-average healthy life expectancy, ensuring that rural towns and deprived areas receive help most rapidly. Part of that will involve the shift from hospital to the community to prevent ill health before it occurs, as I mentioned in an earlier response.