Rosena Allin-Khan

The support schools provide to their pupils as they return to face-to-face education should include time devoted to supporting mental health and wellbeing, which will play a fundamental part in supporting children and young people’s recovery. The £700 million package includes a new one-off Recovery Premium for state primary, secondary and special schools to use as they see best to support disadvantaged students. This will help schools to provide their disadvantaged pupils with a one-off boost to the support, both academic and pastoral, that has been proved most effective in helping them recover from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and can be used for mental health and wellbeing support.

This funding follows our £1 billion COVID-19 “catch-up” package which includes £650 million shared across early years, schools and 16-19 providers over the 2020/21 academic year to support education settings to put the right catch-up and pastoral support in place. This is already being used by schools to put in place additional mental health and wellbeing support.

We have recently announced a £79 million boost to children and young people’s mental health support, including through Mental Health Support Teams. The support teams, which provide early intervention on mental health and emotional wellbeing issues in schools and colleges, will grow from the 59 set up by last March to around 400 by April 2023, supporting nearly 3 million children. This increase means that millions of children and young people will have access to significantly expanded mental health services.

The department has convened its Mental Health in Education Action Group, to look at the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the mental health and wellbeing of children, young people and staff in nurseries, schools, colleges, and universities. It is bringing together partners to take additional action to support mental wellbeing of children and young people with the return to education settings and with transitions between education settings in September 2021. This will include looking at what more we can do to help schools to make the most effective use of recovery premium to support mental health and wellbeing.

We also remain committed to our joint green paper delivery programme with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, including introducing new mental health support teams for all schools and colleges, providing training for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges, and testing approaches to faster access to NHS specialist support.

The government recognises the important role wraparound childcare and other out-of-school activities play in providing enriching activities which support children’s physical and mental health, as well as the development of skills and attitudes which promote their wellbeing. That is why we have ensured that all before and after-school clubs, holiday clubs, and other out-of-school settings have been able to continue to stay open for those children that need or rely on these settings most, for the duration of the national lockdown.

Until 8 March 2021, providers could open for all vulnerable children and young people regardless of circumstance, and children of critical workers where the provision was reasonably necessary to support their parents to work, undertake education or training, or access medical care, in line with those children eligible to attend school on site. From 8 March, these providers have been able to open their doors for all children, where the provision supports certain essential purposes, with vulnerable children and young people able to continue accessing provision under any circumstance. We have updated our protective measures guidance for the sector to support them to open for more children as safely as possible, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protective-measures-for-holiday-or-after-school-clubs-and-other-out-of-school-settings-for-children-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

Given the importance of supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, Dr Alex George has been appointed as a Youth Mental Health Ambassador to advise the government and raise the profile of mental health education and wellbeing in schools. He will play an important role in shaping children’s mental health education and support in schools as part of our plans to ensure all children and young people are supported with their mental health and wellbeing.

The Department for Education also launched in September its £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return programme. It has supported education staff to respond to the emotional and mental health pressures some children and young people may be feeling as a result of COVID-19. In addition, the Department for Health and Social Care also launched a campaign in September through the Every Mind Matters website to raise awareness of the guidance and tools available to support children and young people’s mental wellbeing.  Public Health England continues to update and promote the Every Mind Matters website, available here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/. The government has also provided over £10 million of additional funding to mental health charities to support adults and children.

Our priority is to ensure that this year’s grading is as fair as possible, given the exceptional circumstances, so that students can progress to the next stage of their education or training.

For students who were due to sit GCSE, AS level or A level exams this summer, schools and colleges have provided a centre assessment grade for each subject - the grade they believe their students would have most likely achieved had they been able to sit the exam. Ofqual published guidance on awarding GCSE, AS and A levels which explained to schools and colleges how to do this fairly and robustly, drawing on a range of evidence to reach a judgement. This includes any non-exam assessment that students had already completed; the results of any homework or mock exams; and any other records of student performance over the course of study. This could include predicted grades for university applications but centre assessment grades are not the same as predicted grades.

To make sure that grades are awarded fairly between schools and colleges, exam boards are putting all centre assessment grades through a process of standardisation using a model developed by Ofqual.

The Government is committed to reducing the disparity in health outcomes - whether that is from COVID-19 or from other causes – that some BAME communities experience in this country.

The recommendations in the Public Health England report cover a wide range of areas, many of which are already touched on by the terms of reference for the work that was announced by my hon. Friend, the Minister for Equalities on 4 June 2020. Those terms of reference can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/next-steps-for-work-on-covid-19-disparities-announced.

The Department continues to encourage schools to be especially sensitive to the needs and worries of Black, Asian and minority ethnic pupils, parents and carers, and staff, considering if any additional measures or reasonable adjustments may need to be put in place to mitigate concerns.

Expectant mothers and birthing people are able to access physical and mental health care during the perinatal period in every region in England.

The information is not collected in the format requested.

We have been careful to consider the views of a wide range of experts in response to our public consultation on introducing mandatory out-of-home calorie labelling including representatives from eating disorder groups. The Department has also engaged with the eating disorder charity BEAT, as well as others representing the views of people living with eating disorders, on several occasions since the Government published ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’ last July.

The Department has published an impact assessment detailing the likely effect the policy will have, including the potential effect of the policy on people living with eating disorders. This and the Government’s response to its public consultation on calorie labelling in the out-of-home sector, set out the evidence used to support the policy. The impact assessment and consultation response are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/calorie-labelling-for-food-and-drink-served-outside-of-the-home

On 13 January, we published the white paper ‘Reforming the Mental Health Act’.

The public consultation period on the white paper closed on 21 April. We are now analysing the consultation responses from the public and stakeholders. We will respond to the consultation this year, as part of our continuing work to develop a new Mental Health Bill.

On 13 January, we published the white paper ‘Reforming the Mental Health Act’.

The public consultation period on the white paper closed on 21 April. We are now analysing the consultation responses from the public and stakeholders. We will respond to the consultation this year, as part of our continuing work to develop a new Mental Health Bill.

The information is not collected in the format requested as data is only available for financial years.

NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, but not staff working in primary care, local authorities or other providers.

As at September 2010 there were 8,943 full time equivalent (FTE) HCHS doctors in the mental health workforce in the National Health Service in England, as at December 2020 this was 9,725 FTE, the latest available data.

Mental health service provision is also commissioned by the NHS from private sector providers. The above figures do not reflect staffing in the private sector.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent professional regulator for nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom and is responsible for nurse and midwifery registration. The NMC’s latest published registration data as at March 2021 show there were 71,385 nurses resident in England registered in the field of practice ‘mental health nurses’, based on headcount. As of March 2010 there were 71,793.

The Department has no plans to conduct a review.

NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to monitor the monthly data published by NHS Digital on the prescribing of anti-psychotic medication for people diagnosed with dementia and continue to have regular conversations with regional clinical network leads and local services to understand the patterns in prescribing and potential reasons for those trends.

In addition, Public Health England has recently published factsheets which will help to provide context around prescribing activity and support initiation of conversations at a local level to facilitate an understanding of the patterns in prescribing. These factsheets are available at the following link:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile-group/mental-health/profile/dementia/data#page/

We continue to closely monitor the dementia diagnosis rate on a monthly basis. The Government has made £17 million of the Comprehensive Spending Review Settlement available to tackle the decline in the dementia diagnosis rate. NHS England and NHS Improvement are using this funding to aid recovery of referrals to memory assessment services, diagnosis of dementia and support access to post-diagnostic support.

The NHS Long Term Plan commits to the expansion of the Enhanced Health in Care Homes service model and to expand further the NHS Comprehensive Model of Personalised Care, with a focus on enhancing access to social prescribing for people with dementia and their carers. NHS England and NHS Improvement have also made guidance and resources available to address the rehabilitation needs of people living with dementia who are recovering from COVID-19 infection.

NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to monitor the monthly data published by NHS Digital on the prescribing of anti-psychotic medication for people diagnosed with dementia and continue to have regular conversations with regional clinical network leads and local services to understand the patterns in prescribing and potential reasons for trends being seen.

NHS England and NHS Improvement also continue to promote best practice for medication reviews and monitor the data to ascertain trends to help evidence this element of post-diagnostic support. In addition, Public Health England has recently published CCG factsheets which will help to provide context around prescribing activity and support initiation of conversations at a local level to facilitate an understanding of the patterns in prescribing. These factsheets are available at the following link:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile-group/mental-health/profile/dementia/data#page/

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.

From April 2021, Primary Care Networks (PCNs) will be able to offer an embedded mental health practitioner service. Mental health practitioner roles have been added to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme that enables PCNs to secure additional staff to ensure a satisfactory provision of health services under the Directed Enhanced Services.

We are introducing new models of care that will give 370,000 adults, including young adults with serious mental illness greater choice and control over their care, and that will support them to live well in their communities. These models include access to employment support.

Under the NHS Long Term Plan, we are introducing new models of care which will, by 2023/24, give 370,000 adults with a severe mental illness such as bipolar disorder greater choice and control over their care and support them to live well in their communities. We are also investing £57million in suicide prevention through the Plan.

On 27 March, we published our COVID-19 mental health and wellbeing recovery action plan, backed by £500 million to support people’s mental health in 2021/22. £58 million of this will be used to accelerate the community mental health framework to treat adults with severe mental illness. The recovery action plan also includes £6 million to boost support for specific suicide prevention work, with £1 million for NHS England and NHS Improvement’s work on suicide prevention and £5 million to support voluntary sector organisations that prevent suicide in the community.

Funding under the Future in Mind strategy has been added to clinical commissioning groups’ (CCGs) baseline allocations. Spend by CCGs, as well as total spend nationally and regionally, on mental health services is published annually in the NHS Mental Health Dashboard Quarter 4 publication. This will include the funding from the £1.4 billion Future in Mind strategy. The Dashboard covering 2020/21 is expected to be published in August 2021.

In March, we published the Mental Health Recovery Action Plan, with a one-off targeted investment of £500 million to ensure that we have the right support in place over the coming year. This plan outlines our approach to support groups which have been most impacted by the pandemic including expanding capacity of services to respond to the growing number of individuals who may need clinical support as a result of their treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU). For example, Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services, which offer confidential treatment of conditions such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will expand, supporting 1.6 million more people to access services in 2021/22, backed by an additional £38 million.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have also invested £10 million to set up specialist ‘long’ COVID-19 assessment services in every area across England to assess the physical and mental health needs of patients, including those who have been treated in an ICU. This includes psychological assessments and referral if someone is suffering from mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety or PTSD. No specific assessment has been made of providing peer support groups with local services. However, expanding peer support is a key part of the NHS Long Term Plan.

In March, we published the Mental Health Recovery Action Plan, with a one-off targeted investment of £500 million to ensure that we have the right support in place over the coming year. This plan outlines our approach to support groups which have been most impacted by the pandemic including expanding capacity of services to respond to the growing number of individuals who may need clinical support as a result of their treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU). For example, Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services, which offer confidential treatment of conditions such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will expand, supporting 1.6 million more people to access services in 2021/22, backed by an additional £38 million.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have also invested £10 million to set up specialist ‘long’ COVID-19 assessment services in every area across England to assess the physical and mental health needs of patients, including those who have been treated in an ICU. This includes psychological assessments and referral if someone is suffering from mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety or PTSD. No specific assessment has been made of providing peer support groups with local services. However, expanding peer support is a key part of the NHS Long Term Plan.

We would expect treatment services, such as HIV clinics, to take patients’ mental health needs into account as part of their overall care. Evidence related to people living with HIV and mental health will be considered as we develop our Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy and the HIV Action Plan, which we plan to publish in 2021.

We would expect treatment services, such as HIV clinics, to take patients’ mental health needs into account as part of their overall care. Evidence related to people living with HIV and mental health will be considered as we develop our Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy and the HIV Action Plan, which we plan to publish in 2021.

We would expect treatment services, such as HIV clinics, to take patients’ mental health needs into account as part of their overall care. Evidence related to people living with HIV and mental health will be considered as we develop our Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy and the HIV Action Plan, which we plan to publish in 2021.

Adherence of HIV medication among people living with HIV is captured and reviewed by the clinical teams supporting patients through their ongoing care. Clinical care is further supported through the capturing of data by the HARS database. This system enables clinical teams to record treatment and prescribing information as well as collecting markers on viral load, which can also be an indicator of a patient’s adherence to their HIV medication.

As part of the remit of HIV services, there is continuous monitoring of compliance for the adherence of patients under the care of the treating clinician and pharmacy teams. No specific assessment has been made.

The Department meets regularly with bereavement support organisations to assess what is needed at this difficult time. The Government is committed to ongoing engagement with the bereavement support sector and will continue to work closely with organisations over the coming months to ensure that grieving individuals and families receive the support they need.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.

As highlighted in the Budget Report 2021, the 2020 Comprehensive Spending Review confirmed an additional £3 billion for the National Health Service in 2021/22, on top of the already agreed funding for the NHS Long Term Plan settlement, to support the NHS recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of that £3 billion, the NHS will receive around an additional £500 million in 2021/22, to address waiting times for mental health services, provide more people with mental health support and invest in the workforce.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Streatham (Bell Ribeiro Addy MP) on 10 February 2021 to Question 147071

National Health Service commissioners and providers in England are expected to take National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines into account in the planning and provision of services.

For children and young people, there is a programme in place to promote early access to effective, NICE-approved treatments for eating disorders, working in partnership with children, young people and their families.

For adults, the Adult Eating Disorders: Community, Inpatient and Intensive Day Patient Care Guidance was published in August 2019, emphasising that eating disorder services should provide evidence-based treatment, care and support for the full range of eating disorder diagnoses, including binge eating disorder.

Our intention is to appoint a new Mental Health Equalities Champion. The process and remit of the role will be confirmed in due course.

No such assessment has been made.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) draws on a diverse range of leading scientific and medical experts from within Government, academia and industry, to formulate its advice. During this pandemic, SAGE has drawn on expertise from but not limited to environmental scientists, public health experts, behavioural and social scientists, epidemiologists, virologists, data scientists, modellers, genomic experts, anthropologists, psychologists, therapeutics and vaccine experts.

The Government will publish an action plan setting out further measures to respond to and mitigate the impacts on mental health across the population in due course.

As Chief Medical Officer, Professor Whitty’s interest covers both mental and physical health, therefore we have no plans at present to introduce an equivalent Chief Medical Officer role for mental health.

The Department is working with Time to Change on developing regional community-led hubs to secure its legacy. More widely, we are ensuring that work to address mental health inequalities, stigma and discrimination remains a priority across Government. Every Government department, as well as major corporations, has made a Time to Change Pledge to continue challenging mental health stigma and the inequalities experienced by people with mental illness.

The Government will continue to work closely with bereavement organisations to ensure that support is available to those who have been bereaved, when they need it. This has included the provision of £10.2 million of funding since the start of the pandemic to mental health organisations, including bereavement organisations.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is responsible for assessing whether service providers are following the current standards and guidelines on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), including those developed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

If the CQC becomes aware of concerns about the use of ECT which may lead to potential regulatory breaches, the CQC may its enforcement powers derived from the Health and Social Care Act 2008. The CQC’s inspectors would review the risk and decide on the appropriate regulatory response, which may include enforcement action.

In addition, the professional regulators set the standards of conduct and performance that regulated professionals must meet to safely practise. Professional regulators have a duty to investigate whether someone on their register is fit to practice if an allegation is made that they do not meet the required standards. Where necessary, the regulator will take action to ensure public safety including restricting or removing a professionals’ right to practise.

Counsellors and psychotherapists working in frontline health or social care settings and at COVID-19 vaccination sites are eligible for vaccination in the first phase as frontline healthcare workers. Counsellors and psychotherapists working across all other settings who are eligible for a vaccine, because of their age or other clinical factors, such as underlying health conditions, will also have access to a vaccine in the first phase.

Phase two of the COVID-19 vaccine programme will cover all adults under 50 years old not already included in phase one. Prioritisation for phase two has not yet been decided, but interim advice has been published by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommending an age-based approach, which the Government has accepted in principle.

We have invested more than £10 million in supporting national and local mental health charities, enabling them to continue their vital work in supporting people across the country during the pandemic. Data is not available showing how much of this funding has been used to provide direct counselling support or how many vulnerable people have been supported by these organisations.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) on 11 January 2021 to Question 131380.

We are putting over £12 billion a year into mental health services in England, with investment set to rise still further by an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24.

We have also awarded over £22 million in cash grants to mental health, ambulance, social care, learning disabilities, autism and dementia charities to ensure they could meet increased demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, while continuing their day-to-day activities to help those in need.

We recognise that every psychiatric inpatient deserves the dignity and privacy of their own room. We have committed to over £400 million over the next four years to support our plans to eradicate the use of shared sleeping arrangements in the mental health estate. This includes £250 million funding for 2020/21 and a further £165 million for 2021/22.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have a plan for the trusts and schemes that will take this work forward. No target end date has been set. However, we will deliver the first tranche of new accommodation this financial year.

As of June 2020, the mental health workforce in National Health Service-delivered services has increased by over 13,800 whole time equivalents since March 2016. Within this figure there are over 150 more whole time equivalent consultant doctors.

It is not possible at this time to map the current or future consultant workforce plans to the specific expansion areas set out in ‘Stepping forward to 2020/21: The mental health workforce plan for England’.

We have brought forward our Wellbeing and Mental Health Support Plan for COVID-19, backed by £50 million, to set out the support available for individuals in the context of a second wave, and the winter months. It sets out the steps we have taken to strengthen the support available for people who are struggling, our commitments to ensure services are there to support those who need it and the provision in place to keep our frontline workers well.

The Government is aware of the challenges faced by clinically extremely vulnerable people. Throughout the pandemic, we have been clear on the need to balance the risks to this group with the benefits of gradually returning to normal life. Therefore, it was important to ensure that no-one was asked to shield unless absolutely necessary and shielding was paused at the earliest opportunity.

Updated guidance, issued on 2 December 2020, aims to strike a better balance between providing practical steps to help keep people safe while reducing some of the potentially harmful impacts on mental and social wellbeing that were associated with the previous shielding arrangements. It sets out the steps clinically extremely vulnerable people in each local tier can take to protect themselves and is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19

The Every Mind Matters site is available to everyone with advice and practical steps that people can take to support their wellbeing and manage their mental health during this pandemic. Anyone concerned about their mental health should speak to their general practitioner or existing care team or can access further advice via NHS.UK. Online self-referral options are commonly available for some services including children and young people’s mental health services, and psychological therapies services for adults with common mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.

All mental health providers, including providers of psychological therapies, have been issued with guidance to encourage them to deliver care remotely so that vulnerable groups can receive care safely and 24 hours a day, seven days a week urgent mental health helplines have been established in all parts of England to provide support and advice to people experiencing a mental health crisis.

On 23 November 2020, we published our Wellbeing and Mental Health Support Plan for COVID-19, which set outs the support available for individuals in the context of a second wave and the winter months, including for vulnerable people. It sets out the steps we have taken to strengthen the support available for people who are struggling, our commitments to ensure services are there to support those who need it and the provision in place to keep frontline workers well.

National Health Service volunteer responders carry out simple, one-off tasks to support people in England who need help with accessing essentials and to help prevent loneliness.

‘Check-in and Chat’ tasks provide telephone support to individuals during self-isolation because talking to someone has been shown to help people stay healthy. Check-in and Chat Plus gives regular telephone support over several weeks providing peer support and companionship to people who have previously been advised to shield.

From 1 April to 29 November, there have been 304,193 completed Check in and Chat tasks, plus 43,272 Check in and Chat Plus tasks. In the week ending 29 November, 8,244 Check in and Chat tasks were completed, as well as 2,190 Check in and Chat Plus tasks.

Up to 15 November, NHS volunteer responders completed a total of 1,089,923 tasks in support of shielding and self-isolating groups.

Supporting the mental health of healthcare workers is a priority for the Government, particularly during this unprecedented pandemic. NHS England and NHS Improvement are investing £15 million to strengthen mental health support for National Health Service staff. This funding will be used to set up a first wave of mental health hubs that will provide outreach and assessment services to help frontline staff receive rapid access to mental health services.

Supporting the mental health of health workers is a priority for the Government, particularly during this unprecedented pandemic. NHS England and NHS Improvement have put in place a comprehensive package of health and wellbeing services for National Health Service staff, including helplines for counselling and support and free access to well-being apps.

The NHS People Plan published in July is focused on the wellbeing of the NHS workforce. As part of this offer, £15 million is being invested to strengthen mental health support for NHS staff. This funding will be used to set up a first wave of mental health hubs that will provide outreach and assessment services to help frontline staff receive rapid access to mental health services. The NHS also funds NHS Practitioner Health, which provides confidential mental health services for doctors and dentists.

On 7 October NHS England announced £10 million of investment to establish a network of specialist clinics in England to support patients suffering from the persistent effects of COVID-19 or ‘long COVID-19’.

These specialist clinics will support patients suffering from various symptoms of long covid including those relating to mental health. Every patient will undergo a psychological assessment to see if they are suffering from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder or another mental health condition as a result of COVID-19. Further details on the location of the clinics will be announced shortly.

The National Health Service has also launched the ‘Your Covid Recovery’, an online rehabilitation service that provides personalised support to patients for both their physical and mental health.

No formal assessment has been made.

We are committed to ensuring that anyone with a substance misuse problem can access the help and support they need. This includes providing support for those who misuse drugs and additional funding over 2020/21 to 2021/22 to drug and alcohol treatment in targeted local authorities to individuals experiencing rough sleeping, including those currently in emergency accommodation following the COVID-19 response.

The second phase of Dame Carol Black’s independent review on drugs focuses on prevention, treatment services and recovery. The recommendations will be made available to Ministers in due course and will feed into wider Government work to tackle the serious harms caused by substance misuse, including through increasing access to services.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have been working with NHS Digital, providers of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services and clinical experts to enable data related to the impact of COVID-19 for patients with common mental health disorders to be collected within the new iteration of the IAPT dataset.

This will allow us to collect data on the diagnosis of COVID-19 and whether there is evidence of long-COVID for the patient. This work is being finalised and is expected to be rolled out at the start of 2021.

All mental health data collections managed by NHS Digital have continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue through the winter and into next year.

Under the NHS Long Term Plan, we have set out our plans to invest £57 million to support local suicide prevention plans and establish suicide bereavement support services in all areas of England by 2023/24.

We have committed that all local systems will have suicide bereavement support services providing timely and appropriate support to families and staff by 2023/24 and have provided funding to 40% of local systems in 2020/21 for them to establish and deliver such services. This is in line with the planning and delivery expectations set out in the Mental Health Implementation Plan 2019/20-2023/24.

Next year the National Health Service will receive around an additional £500 million to address waiting times for mental health services, following the reduction in referrals due to COVID-19, and give more people the mental health support they need. Some of the £500 million will be used for investment in the NHS workforce. Further detail will be set out in due course.

The Spending Review 2020 provides £260 million to continue to grow the National Health Service workforce and support commitments made in the NHS Long Term Plan, including for mental health.

Full details on funding allocations towards NHS workforce budgets, including Health Education England, in 2021-22 will be subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and finalised in due course.

Next year the National Health Service will receive around an additional £500 million to address waiting times for mental health services, following the reduction in referrals due to COVID-19, and give more people the mental health support they need. Some of the £500 million will be used for investment in the NHS workforce. Further detail will be set out in due course.

We take parliamentary scrutiny incredibly seriously and it is fundamentally important that hon. Members are provided with accurate and timely information to enable them to hold the Government to account. We are working rapidly to provide all Members with accurate answers to their questions, as well as supporting the Government’s response to the unprecedented challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer to Question 94511 on 11 November.

The hon. Member’s remaining question will be answered as soon as possible.

This information is not currently held in the format requested.

As of 17 February 2021 1,764,520 contact tracing alerts have been sent out to app users in England who have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus.

Users of the NHS COVID-19 app are anonymous. Therefore, we do not hold data on the number of contact tracing alerts by employment sector.

Anyone notified by NHS Test and Trace that they have tested positive for COVID-19 or are a close contact of someone who has is legally required to self-isolate.

NHS Test and Trace, with input from Public Health England and the Scientific Pandemic Influenza – Behavioural group, have conducted a survey to understand compliance with self-isolation. The results of this survey will be published in due course.

We recognise how important it is that people get the support they need with their mental health during this unprecedented time, including those working in small businesses such as the wedding sector.

We have provided £10.2 million of additional funding for mental health charities to support people struggling with their mental wellbeing during this time.

In addition, the Department for Work and Pensions continues to work with the Thriving at Work Leadership Council and Mind to promote the best practice and guidance offered on the Mental Health at Work website, which includes links to toolkits for small businesses and the self-employed affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The Government is signposting these resources via GOV.UK at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-support-for-business-from-outside-government

The Time to Change campaign has helped transform the national conversation around mental health and successfully changed the attitudes of 5.4 million people towards mental illness since 2007. A copy of the Time to Change Social Impact report for 2019/20 is available at the following link:

https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/about-us/our-impact

Since 2011, the Department has provided over £30 million of funding to the campaign. The current phase of the campaign ends on the 31 March 2021 and we have no plans to provide further funding for the campaign.

The Government is committed to addressing mental health inequalities, stigma and discrimination. Every Government department, as well as major corporations, have made a Time to Change Pledge to continue challenging mental health stigma and the inequalities experienced by people with mental illness.

The latest available data on the condition of the National Health Service mental health estate was published in October 2019. According to this data, the cost to eradicate backlog maintenance across mental health and learning disability trusts was £342 million. The publication of data for 2019-20 was delayed due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and is due to be published in January 2021.

In October 2020, the Government announced more than £400 million to eradicate dormitory accommodation from mental health facilities, as part of the Government’s record investment in NHS infrastructure. This investment will improve the safety, privacy and dignity of patients suffering with mental illness.

The Government has also recently announced that 40 hospitals are to be built by 2030 and this includes new mental health hospitals in Northgate and in Poole. A competition will be announced in due course for eight further hospital schemes.

We have no plans for such an assessment. All recommendations of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review are being considered carefully. The Government will provide an update in due course.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is tightly regulated under the Mental Health Act 1983 and generally can only be given when a patient consents. The Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice provides statutory guidance on the usage of ECT.

Sir Simon Wessely’s Independent Review of the Mental Health Act made 154 recommendations, including proposing further safeguards to strengthen a patients’ rights to refuse this treatment in advance. We have committed to publishing a White Paper which will set out the Government’s response to the Review, which we aim to publish by the end of the year.

Victims of stalking can access a range of healthcare services depending on their clinical needs, and healthcare services are increasingly becoming trauma-informed, including mental health community care and sexual assault and abuse services.

The Intercollegiate Document ‘Adult Safeguarding: Roles and Competencies for Health Care Staff’ sets out the safeguarding knowledge, skills and attitudes required by staff working in health and care settings. All healthcare staff must undertake mandatory safeguarding training.

Supporting people’s mental health is a priority for this Government. For those who have a mental health condition or are particularly vulnerable to mental illness, we are committed to making sure the right help and support is in place.

We recognise the pressures on mental health services due to the COVID-19 pandemic. National Health Service mental health services have remained open for business throughout this time, including delivering support digitally and by phone. For those with severe needs or in crisis, NHS mental health providers have established all-age 24 hours a day, seven days a week mental health crisis lines.

Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to deliver the most ambitious major expansion and transformation of mental health services ever across England. We have also invested over £10 million to support both national and local mental health charities to continue their vital work supporting people across the country.

The provision of mental health services during an influenza pandemic was not explicitly tested as part of Exercise Cygnus.

However, we are committed to supporting everyone’s mental wellbeing, especially during unprecedented events such as pandemics, and have ensured that mental health services have remained open throughout the current COVID-19 pandemic.

We are continuing to work with experts from the National Health Service and from public health to assess what further help and support people might need to maintain their mental health over the next few weeks and months. In addition, we have released tailored guidance to help people deal with their mental health and wellbeing on GOV.UK at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-the-public-on-mental-health-and-wellbeing

We are also promoting this through the Every Mind Matters website.

The Better Health-Every Mind Matters (BH-EMM) campaign Snapchat influencer campaign ran from 8 September to 31 October 2020. The £20,000 investment was deployed over eight weeks.

Public Health England is unable to publish details of the accounts used as this information is commercially confidential.

While there was a delay in reporting these positive test results in the public data, and in transferring them to the contact tracing system, anybody testing positive received their results in the normal way, and in the normal timeframe. All outstanding cases were immediately transferred to the contact tracing system by 1am on 3 October.

We identified that 15,841 cases between 25 September and 2 October were not included in the reported daily COVID-19 cases.

While there was a delay in reporting these positive test results in the public data, and in transferring them to the contact tracing system, anybody testing positive received their results in the normal way, and in the normal timeframe. All outstanding cases were immediately transferred to the contact tracing system by 1am on 3 October.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The National Health Service 12 Week Weight Loss Plan is a starting point for those who are overweight or living with obesity, by supporting them on their journey to lose weight and adopt healthier eating and physical activity habits over time. The Better Health campaign and webpage provides ongoing support, including offers from weight-loss providers for those who would like or require additional support to lose weight and from physical activity providers for those who wish to become more active.

Through the new obesity strategy we are delivering a range of measures on weight management including a National Health Service 12-week weight loss plan app, expanding weight management services to help more people get the support they need, accelerating the expansion of the NHS diabetes prevention programme and making conversations about weight in primary care the norm. Further details about these measures will be available later in the year and we will engage stakeholders throughout this process.

We have been careful to consider the views of mental health charities and experts as we developed our plans for implementing the obesity strategy and we will continue to listen going forwards. This includes feedback from a wide range of experts in response to our public consultations on specific policy proposals.

Through the new obesity strategy, published on 27 July, we are delivering a range of measures on weight management including a National Health Service 12-week weight loss plan app, expanding weight management services to help more people get the support they need, accelerating the expansion of the NHS diabetes prevention programme and making conversations about weight in primary care the norm. Further details about these measures will be available later in the year and we will engage stakeholders throughout this process.

The information requested is not held.

The £588 million discharge fund does not include funding for National Health Service mental health trusts.

NHS financial arrangements for the remainder of 2020/21 include amounts for local systems to respond to COVID-19 and support for mental health discharges can be funded through monies available to local systems.

Separate discharge guidance for NHS mental health trusts is being developed in collaboration with NHS England and we will seek to publish this shortly.

The Government recognises the importance of a trauma-informed approach across the range of services in health that provide support to victims and survivors of abuse.

Mental health is one of our top priorities and we want to ensure that people can access services according to their clinical need.

All healthcare staff are required to complete training on safeguarding for children and adults to ensure they understand the key principles to identify and support victims of violence and abuse, including stalking.

It is our priority to ensure that people are discharged safely from hospital to the most appropriate place, and that they continue to receive the care and support they need.

Under the Discharge Service Requirements, people who are clinically ready will be supported to return to their place of residence, where an assessment of longer-term needs will take place, using the ‘Discharge to Assess (D2A)’ HomeFirst model. Mental health inpatient services are not within scope for this guidance.

The figures from the children and young people’s mental health national benchmarking collection show that the employed workforce has increased by 4,557 to 14,857 whole time equivalents between December 2015 and December 2018.

The national benchmarking study of the children and young people’s mental health workforce is available at the following link:

https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/mental-health/children-young-peoples-mental-health-services

There are currently 59 mental health support teams operational within schools and colleges. Some teams may, however, have flexed their resources to meet other requirements as part of the COVID-19 response and any subsequent school closures.

192 education mental health practitioners completed their training during 2018/19 and a further 496 trainees are currently in training.

We have committed to establishing new mental health support teams in 20-25% of areas in England by 2023 and we are ahead of trajectory for achieving this. The first trailblazer sites became fully operational in early 2020 but it is too early to assess their effectiveness.

An independent evaluation of the implementation of the core proposals within the Green Paper has been commissioned but the evaluation fieldwork had to be temporarily paused due to the COVID-19 restrictions. The next steps for this evaluation process are currently being considered.

The following table shows available discharge figures for all activity relating to people who receive specialist secondary mental health care services or who receive specialist secondary learning disabilities or autism spectrum disorder services.

Source: Mental Health Services Dataset - NHS Digital.

¹ As this is a count of discharges it may include people who had more than one hospital spell in a month and are therefore counted more than once.

The National Health Service has issued guidance to services to support them in managing demand and capacity across inpatient and community mental health services and keeping services open for business at this time.

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services, which include counselling and psychotherapy, are expected to adhere to the broader Government guidance on working in COVID-safe environments to ensure that both staff and patients are protected. IAPT services continue to offer therapy via remote means, and any decision to restore face to face treatment will be a local decision, taking into account Government advice.

This information is only available by financial year, not calendar year. Details of expenditure on National Health Service mental health services are published by NHS England and NHS Improvement through the NHS Mental Health Dashboard which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/taskforce/imp/mh-dashboard/

Final outturn figures for 2019/20 and planned expenditure figures for 2020/21 are not yet available.

Planned expenditure on mental health services for 2019/20 by clinical commissioning groups and NHS England and NHS Improvement specialised commissioning was £13,055 million.

National Health Service mental health services have remained open for business, offering support using digital, telephone and face-to-face approaches, including 24 hours a day, seven days a week crisis helplines, clearly accessible from trust websites.

The NHS has written to service providers, including general practitioners (GPs), on 4 June asking them to undertake a series of actions to support people who have been asked to shield. This includes ensuring every shielding individual has a named care coordinator to help coordinate different aspects of their healthcare, including accessing appropriate mental health care from NHS mental health services via their GP or other routes. A copy of the letter is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/06/C0583-nhs-update-on-shielding-june-2020.pdf

No estimate has been made as the data does not identify people who are shielding.

Ministers meet many stakeholders in the conduct of their duties.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Department has commissioned NHS Digital to procure a new national survey of the prevalence of mental health conditions in adults, the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. NHS Digital will run a tender exercise over the 2020 summer period to procure a supplier that will carry out the survey.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Ministers regularly engage with a wide range of mental health organisations, including mental health trusts, as part of Departmental business.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Ministers regularly engage with a wide range of mental health organisations, including mental health trusts, as part of Departmental business.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Ministers regularly engage with a wide range of mental health organisations, including mental health trusts, as part of Departmental business.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 response, the Department commissioned NHS England and NHS Improvement to develop a comprehensive package of emotional, psychological, and practical support for National Health Service staff.

In response, NHS England and NHS Improvement have funded a range of services to support the health and mental wellbeing of NHS staff, including a dedicated staff support helpline (in partnership with Samaritans), virtual staff common rooms for mutual support, and a separate helpline offering bereavement support (in partnership with Hospice UK). More information on support available to all NHS staff is online at the following link:

people.nhs.uk/help

The total number of discharges from mental health hospitals in England during the period requested is shown in the following table. COVID-19 is not one of the options available to record the reason for a patient being discharged.

Source: Mental Health Services Data Set, NHS Digital

Notes:

¹A person may have had been discharged more than once within any given period.

² Data for April 2020 are still being collected and analysed.

Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, the National Health Service has been clear on the importance of maintaining face to face care for those patients who need it, and of patient choice in determining suitability for digital appointments.

When delivering face to face appointments, mental health services are expected to follow the latest guidance on the use of personal protective equipment in healthcare settings to support infection prevention and control. Services will be further enabled by the roll out of the NHS Test and Trace service to reduce transmission risk and deliver face to face services in as safe a way as possible.

The information requested cannot be provided.

The Hospital Episode Statistics data for March 2020 includes a small number of finished consultant episodes where there has been a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19 in inpatients in mental health hospitals. This number falls below the level that would be reported and the data are thereby suppressed under the disclosure controls applied to this data.

Data for April 2020 are not yet available

Such discussions have not taken place between the Secretaries of State. However, I have met several times recently with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families (Vicky Ford MP) to discuss how health and education can work together to support children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing as schools reopen.

Detentions under the Mental Health Act are measured through the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) published by NHS Digital. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with NHS Digital and the other arm’s-length bodies to get early access to MHSDS data where possible, to be able to explore trends in activity.

In relation to referrals to National Health Service community mental health teams NHS England are aware that, through analysis of early access to MHSDS data, as well as via feedback from regional teams and providers, there has been a reduction in referrals since the start of the pandemic. To address this issue, NHS England and NHS Improvement have been emphasising that mental health services have remained open during the pandemic, providing a combination of care via digital channels and face to face where needed, and are working to ensure that referral routes, via primary care in particular, are clear.

With regard to accident and emergency attendances for people with mental health needs, NHS England and NHS Improvement are undertaking an analysis of a sample of trusts’ submissions of Emergency Care Data Set data to explore trends.

The Care Quality Commission has reported that there have been 152 deaths of people subject to the Mental Health Act 1983 (from 1 March to 5 June 2020). Around half of these cases (75 deaths) are suspected or confirmed to be related to COVID-19, according to mental health providers. The proportion of deaths associated with COVID-19 is consistent with that reported on 7 May 2020, which the CQC reported mirrored a rise in notifications from other sectors.

The CQC is continuing to monitor the numbers of deaths of patients under the Mental Health Act. It has also written to providers asking them to continue reporting the deaths of patients under the Mental Health Act regardless of whether they are transferred to an acute trust for treatment.

We have made good progress and we remain committed to carrying out the Green Paper’s core proposals. In 2018 we announced the first 25 trailblazer sites, delivering 59 mental health support teams (MHSTs), the first of which started to become operational in early 2020. Twelve of the first 25 sites are also testing four-week waiting times. In July 2019, NHS England confirmed a further 57 areas, developing 123 new MHSTs.

The Department for Education has committed to provide training for a senior mental health lead in all state-funded schools and colleges in England by 2025. Eighty-two per cent of schools and 77 per cent of post-16 institutions have someone leading on mental health.

The Department for Education has also allocated £6 million to support schools to implement the new Relationship, Sex and Health Education curriculum; and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care hosted three social media summits in 2019 to discuss tackling online harmful content.

The Carers Action Plan 2018-2020 is due to complete this year. Action 3.4 in the plan focuses on young carers from disadvantaged and seldom heard groups, to increase the timely identification of particularly hidden young carers and to support better identification among black, Asian and minority ethnic families.

The findings from the action will be reported on this summer. Next steps and recommendations from the report will form part of the review for the action plan.

We continue to work with carer organisations, and young carer organisations to understand the impact of COVID-19 on young carers. This will help inform our next steps.

The information requested is shown in the following table.

Source: Mental Health Services Data Set, NHS Digital³

Notes:

¹ A person may have had more than one referral within any given period.

² Data for April 2020 are still being collected and analysed.

³ Caution should be made when comparing data as the coverage of the Mental Health Services Data Set has increased with 266 providers submitting data in March 2020 compared to 171 providers in March 2019.

National Health Service mental health services have remained open, and services have deployed digital tools to connect with people and provide ongoing support.

We expect mental health services to liaise with local partners to ensure referral routes are understood, particularly where children and young people are not at school.

NHS England has asked all mental health trusts to ensure there are 24 hours a day, seven days a week open access telephone lines for urgent NHS mental health support, advice and triage for all ages through a single point of access.

We are working with the National Health Service and Public Health England, service users, academics and the voluntary sector to gather evidence and assess the potential longer-term mental health impacts of COVID-19 and plan for how to support the public’s mental health and wellbeing throughout the ‘recovery’ phase.

Mental health services remain open and are working to support people with mental health problems through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond and, on 22 April, the Government launched a major effort to tackle loneliness due to social isolation during the COVID-19 outbreak to ensure that, for people of all ages and backgrounds, staying at home does not need to lead to loneliness.

NHS England and NHS Improvement do not collect data on the number of patients who have had more than one ambulance in attendance before being taken to hospital, or how many patients have requested an ambulance on more than one occasion before receiving a response.

Numbers of 999 calls and incidents are published at England and ambulance trust level. These Ambulance Quality Indicators are published monthly by NHS England and can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/

Ambulance Quality Indicators, including national response time performance are published monthly by NHS England. This can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/

In April, four of the six national response time standards were met for life threatening, emergency, urgent, and non-urgent calls. In March, one standard was met for life threatening calls. Ambulance services received a record number of calls per day to 999, alongside a reduction in patients conveyed to accident and emergency, in order to reduce the increased pressures hospitals are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

NHS England and NHS Improvement do not hold information on how many people in cardiac arrest did not have an ambulance respond to their call in time in the last six months.

Ambulance Quality Indicators, including Clinical Outcomes are published monthly by NHS England. This can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/

NHS England and NHS Improvement do not collect data on the number of patients who have had more than one ambulance in attendance before being taken to hospital, or how many patients have requested an ambulance on more than one occasion before receiving a response.

Numbers of 999 calls and incidents are published at England and ambulance trust level. These Ambulance Quality Indicators are published monthly by NHS England and can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/

National guidance has been made available for ambulance trusts at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-ambulance-trusts/covid-19-guidance-for-ambulance-trusts

No national assessment has been made of the effect of that guidance on trends in the level of morbidity and mortality of people with COVID-19.

NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, but not staff working in primary care, general practitioner surgeries, local authorities or other providers.

The following table shows the number of all staff at the mental health trusts specified as at September 2010, September 2019 and January 2020, the latest available data, full time equivalent.

Provider staff from Enfield Primary Care Trust were transferred to Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust in March 2011.

Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust acquired Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust to form Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust in January 2017.

Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust merged to become Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust in January 2012.

Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and Worcestershire Primary Care Trust merged to form Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust in July 2011.

A number of charities and voluntary organisations provide a range of valued services for people experiencing bereavement, including Cruse Bereavement Care which provides a national helpline as does the National Bereavement Partnership COVID-19 Hub. For National Health Service staff, a confidential bereavement support line and other sources of support are available at the following link:

https://people.nhs.uk/help/

The Government is taking a cross-Government approach to address bereavement support, and what is needed to ensure that families and friends of those deceased get the support they need - particularly during this very difficult time.

We are working with the NHS, arm’s length bodies and other organisations to assess the increased need for psychological support as a result of COVID-19 and are committed to ongoing engagement with the voluntary sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to work closely to assess how we can support charities in doing their important work.

A number of charities and voluntary organisations provide a range of valued services for people experiencing bereavement, including Cruse Bereavement Care which provides a national helpline as does the National Bereavement Partnership COVID-19 Hub. For National Health Service staff, a confidential bereavement support line and other sources of support are available at the following link:

https://people.nhs.uk/help/

The Government is taking a cross-Government approach to address bereavement support, and what is needed to ensure that families and friends of those deceased get the support they need - particularly during this very difficult time.

We are working with the NHS, arm’s length bodies and other organisations to assess the increased need for psychological support as a result of COVID-19 and are committed to ongoing engagement with the voluntary sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to work closely to assess how we can support charities in doing their important work.

The Government has recently announced an additional £5 million grant to Mind and the Mental Health Consortia to administer a COVID-19 mental health response fund to mental health voluntary and community sector organisations across England. The aim is to promote mental health and wellbeing support, which complements NHS services, to those struggling with their mental health and will include peer support, telephone and online support.

We are also working to protect vital mental health services and support people with mental health issues particularly those shielding or self-isolating. We have published official guidance for the public on mental health and wellbeing and for parents and carers about supporting their children’s mental health and wellbeing and are promoting this through trusted channels like GOV.UK and Every Mind Matters.

Improving the psychological wellbeing of those working in the National Health Service is an essential factor in retaining NHS staff. Therefore, improving psychological wellbeing has been a key focus of the NHS People Plan. An interim version of the NHS People Plan was published on 3 June, setting out the vision for how this will be achieved by creating a new offer for all NHS staff, developed through widespread engagement with our people and staff representatives.

Publication of the final NHS People Plan has been deferred to allow the NHS to provide maximum operational effort to COVID-19 response. However, we have commissioned NHS England to develop a comprehensive emotional, psychological and practical support package for NHS staff during and following the COVID-19 response. Details of the support available as a part of this package are online at the following link:

people.nhs.uk/help

NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, but not staff working in primary care, general practitioner surgeries, local authorities or other providers.

The following table shows the number of days lost due to mental health reasons and the number of absences due to unknown reasons across all staff in the time periods specified, full time equivalent (FTE).

Source: NHS Digital

Figures cover 1 January to 31 December each year.

Mental health reasons for 2010 includes the following reasons: 'Other Mental Disorders', 'Psychological', 'Stress' and 'Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses'.

Mental health reasons for 2019 includes the reason of 'Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses'.

Part of the increase in FTE days lost by sickness absence reason may be attributable to the improvement in completion of sickness absence reason information by staff.

The recording of sickness absence may have been increased by initiatives such as the NHS Health and Wellbeing framework.

Mental health awareness has increased in the last 10 years, with employers being more understanding and employees feeling more able to disclose mental health issues.

The Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a comprehensive emotional, psychological and practical support package for National Health Service staff during and following the COVID-19 response.

This currently includes free access to well-being apps, virtual staff common rooms for mutual support, a dedicated support helpline and text service (in partnership with Samaritans), and a separate helpline offering bereavement support (in partnership with Hospice UK). NHS organisations are now also able to procure supplementary occupational health support for their staff through a new framework, available until 31 December.

More information on how to access this support can be found online at the following link:

people.nhs.uk/help

Information on mortality rates in mental health trusts and other mental health services is not collected centrally.

We do not hold this information in the format requested. Currently, access and waiting times standards exist for Adult Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services, Early Intervention for Psychosis services, and Children and Young People's Eating Disorder Services. These standards are being met or are on track for delivery by the end of 2020/21.

The National Health Service has also committed to testing and rolling out further waiting time standards for adults and children as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.

The information requested on the number of wellbeing teams and members of staff in each National Health Service trust is not collected or held centrally.

The NHS Volunteer Responders programme is available to anyone in England with a mental health illness if they are having issues accessing supermarkets or for picking up prescriptions. Whilst it was originally designed to support the shielded population, it is not limited to this cohort, and it is open to wider vulnerable groups who may having issues accessing essentials.

If a vulnerable person needs support in this way, they can either self-refer, or can be referred into the programme through a number of routes, including health professionals and local authorities.

The information requested on the number of wellbeing teams and members of staff in each National Health Service trust is not collected or held centrally.

The Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a comprehensive emotional, psychological and practical support package for National Health Service staff during and following the COVID-19 response. This currently includes free access to well-being apps, a dedicated support helpline and text service, and a separate helpline offering bereavement support. The Department is working with partners to extend both helplines to the social care workforce and will also be introducing an app and website aimed at providing timely information for the adult social care workforce.

NHS and social care organisations are continuing to support the psychological welfare of their volunteer staff, in line with the latest health, safety and wellbeing guidance.

We have anticipated that National Health Service staff will potentially face significant pressure during COVID-19 response. The Department has urgently commissioned NHS England and NHS Improvement to develop a comprehensive package of emotional, psychological, and practical support for NHS staff during and following COVID-19 response.

Details of the support available as a part of this package are online at the following link:

people.nhs.uk/help/

The package includes free access to several mental health and wellbeing apps, virtual staff common rooms for mutual support, a dedicated staff support helpline and a separate helpline offering bereavement support.

The requested data is not yet available as it is still being collected. When collected, it will be published in the National Health Service mental health services monthly statistics.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have published guidance for mental health, learning disabilities and autism, and specialised commissioning services during the pandemic. It provides considerations for National Health Service commissioned services to help them meet the general principles laid out in that document, including that people with mental health needs, a learning disability or autism receive the same degree of protection and support with managing COVID-19 as other people, that decisions balance clinical need, patient safety and risk, and that providers maximise the use of digital technologies to ensure continuity of care.

The Care Quality Commission, as the independent regulator of health and social care in England, also continues, through its emergency support framework, to take action to keep people safe and support providers.

Work is underway to plan for an expected increase in demand for patients needing mental health support due to COVID-19, including those directly affected following a stay in hospital. Existing mental health services are open and available for any person requiring support.

On 8 April, the National Health Service launched a mental health hotline as part of a package of measures to support the NHS’s 1.4 million staff as they help people deal with COVID-19.

As of 7 May, 1,625 calls have been made to the hotline.

The requested data is not yet available as it is still being collected. When collected, it will be published in the National Health Service mental health services monthly statistics.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published a guideline on ‘Dementia: assessment, management and support’ for people living with dementia and their carers in 2018. It includes recommendations on involving people in decisions about their care and offering early and ongoing opportunities to discuss advance statement about their wishes, preferences, beliefs and values regarding their future care. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng97

Commissioned by NHS England, the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health published ‘The Dementia Care Pathway: full implementation guidance’ in July 2018. It includes support for providers, commissioners and sustainability and transformation partnerships in providing personalised care for people with dementia and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/dementia/implementation-guide-and-resource-pack-for-dementia-care/

The number of vacancies for music therapists in the National Health Service is not held centrally. NHS Improvement collects vacancy data for three staff groups; doctors, nurses and ‘other staff’. These published vacancy statistics are not broken down by the different specialties and professions e.g. allied health professions.

The NHS People Plan work programme is completing a review of all allied health professions. This will look at both the current and future capacity need for the allied health professions including music therapists.

The Department has no plans to change the list of medical exemptions from prescription charges. Extensive arrangements are already in place to help people access National Health Service prescriptions. These include a broad range of NHS prescription charge exemptions for which someone with asthma may qualify.

To support those with an ongoing medical condition who do not qualify for an exemption, the cost of the prescription pre-payment certificates has been frozen for another year. A holder of a 12-month certificate can get all the prescriptions they need for just £2 per week.

Public Health England (PHE) has run several Be Clear on Cancer (BCOC) campaigns to help improve early detection of cancer. PHE has not run a national public awareness campaign on ovarian cancer in the last 12 months. However, in 2014 PHE ran a regional ovarian cancer campaign and, in 2017, a pilot which focussed on a range of abdominal symptoms, such as diarrhoea, bloating and discomfort that can be indicative of several cancers, including ovarian cancer.

PHE is currently undertaking new data analysis and research to determine the future direction of BCOC campaign activity and will take into consideration the outcomes of these campaigns. Further information on the BCOC campaigns can be viewed at the following link:

http://www.ncin.org.uk/cancer_type_and_topic_specific_work/topic_specific_work/be_clear_on_cancer/

Decisions on which cancers BCOC campaigns should focus on are informed by a steering group with representatives from PHE, the Department, NHS England, primary and secondary care clinicians, and key voluntary sector organisations. These decisions are under constant review, informed by the available data and medical information resources.

The living conditions and reception arrangements of migrants in France are a matter for the French government.

However, UK Government ministers and officials regularly meet their French counterparts to discuss our close cooperation on tackling illegal migration under the Sandhurst Treaty framework, which includes UK support to the French asylum system to improve access by vulnerable migrants.

This government is fully committed to protecting the public, and ensuring the police have the powers they need.

On 5 November the government announced its intention to review pre-charge bail legislation, including the practice of ‘Released Under Investigation’ (RUI), to ensure we have a system which more effectively prioritises the safety of victims and witnesses and the management of suspects.

Specifically, the review will look to:

• ensure the proper use of bail to protect victims and witnesses;
• support the police in the timely management of investigations, whether a suspect is released on bail or RUI;
• respect the rights of suspects, victims and witnesses to timely decisions and updates;
• ensure pre-charge bail supports the timely progression of cases to courts; and
• design simplified and flexible rules to support effective operational decisions.

The Government remains committed to an immigration policy which welcomes and celebrates people to the UK through safe and legal routes but deters illegal immigration. The Immigration Rules already provide for undocumented migrants to regularise their status.

The Immigration Rules are kept under continuous review and adjusted where necessary in light of feedback, impact and the findings of the courts.