Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department's polices of recent trends in levels of unmet need for mental health support.

Lord Darzi’s independent review of the National Health Service in England found that too many people were waiting too long for mental health support from the NHS, with approximately 1 million people waiting for mental health services as of April 2024.

As part of our mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, the Government will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to reduce delays and provide faster treatment, which will also help ease pressure on busy mental health services. We will also modernise the Mental Health Act, introduce a specialist mental health professional in every school in England, and roll out open access Young Futures hubs in every community.

However, we know wider change is needed and we have launched a national conversation, called Change NHS: help build a health service fit for the future, to develop the 10-Year Health Plan. We are inviting people to share their ideas on what needs to change across the health and care system, including:

• how the NHS could change to deliver high quality care more effectively;
• how other parts of the health and care system and other organisations in society could change to promote better health and improve the way health and care services work together; and
• how individuals and communities could do things differently in the future to improve people’s health.