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 trends in the length of waiting lists for mental health services in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.

No formal assessment has been made. Information on waiting lists is not held at constituency level. In Coventry and Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area, referrals to community teams for adults and children have returned to pre-pandemic levels. Services have targeted resources and average waiting times have been maintained at below pre-COVID-19 levels. Waiting times have increased for some services, including psychological therapy within community teams and children’s eating disorders. The CCG continues to plan for anticipated increases in demand. Significant additional funding is committed to address areas where waiting times have been increasing.

In the West Midlands, most waiting lists are reducing although some areas such as children’s eating disorder and adult crisis services have seen an increase in demand. NHS Midlands continues to work with services in Coventry and Warwickshire and the West Midlands to reduce waiting times for mental health services.