Oral Answers to Questions

Rushanara Ali Excerpts

Tuesday 13th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)]

2. How much additional investment there will be in children and young people’s mental health services in 2015-16.

[Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)]

5. How much additional investment there will be in children and young people’s mental health services in 2015-16.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

7. How much additional investment there will be in children and young people’s mental health services in 2015-16.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alistair Burt]

No. I take the hon. Lady’s point, but we are committed to spending £1.25 billion over the Parliament. We will not be able to spend the £250 million this year, but it will be included in future years. The reason is that we have to make sure it is effectively and properly spent and it is a phased programme. She will be delighted to know that in her constituency there will be an extra £536,000 for children’s mental health services.

[Rushanara Ali]

The organisation YoungMinds found that one in five mental health trusts had had to freeze or cut budgets every year in the last Parliament, and at the moment 40,000 young people are being refused mental health treatment. What guarantees can the Minister give that the money promised by the Chancellor recently will actually be made available and that trusts will not continue to cut mental health budgets?

[Alistair Burt]

The hon. Lady makes a fair point. While we invest money nationally in services, people complain that locally clinical commissioning groups have not been funnelling the money down. Two things should help: first, for the first time the national access and working time targets, which the Government have introduced, will provide a means of monitoring what CCGs are doing; and, secondly, the new scorecard for CCGs will look explicitly to ensure that a proportion of the increase to a CCG goes into mental health services. The hon. Lady will also be pleased to know that in her own CCG area there will be an extra £521,000 for children’s mental health services.