Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to recommendation 11 on page 41 in the report by Bliss, Hanging in the Balance, published in 2015, what progress his Department has made towards ensuring that all parents and staff on neonatal units have access to psychological support in line with national standards.

The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health included a specific recommendation for NHS England to improve perinatal services.

The aim is that by 2020/21, there will be increased access to specialist perinatal mental health support in all areas in England, in the community or in-patient mother and baby units, allowing at least an additional 30,000 women each year to receive evidence based treatment, closer to home, when they need it.

The Department and NHS England have committed a total investment from 2015/16 to 2020/21 of £365 million to support this expanded service.

For National Health Service staff, NHS England launched a £5 million programme of health and wellbeing support in 2015, which included measures to help staff deal with stress and mental ill health.