Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support youth mental health services.

We are committed to achieving our NHS Long Term Plan ambitions for service transformation and expansion, backed by investment of £2.3 billion a year to mental health services by 2023/24. The investment will mean that, by 2023/24, an extra 345,000 children and young people aged 0-25 years old will be able to access mental health support via National Health Service-funded mental health services and school- or college-based mental health support teams, if they need them.

Through the Long Term Plan, we will extend current service models to create a comprehensive offer for 0-25 year olds that reaches across mental health services for children, young people and adults. The new model will deliver an integrated approach across health, social care, education and the voluntary sector, such as the evidenced-based ‘iThrive’ operating model which currently covers around 47% of the 0-18 year old population and can be expanded to 25 year olds.