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 implications for his policies of the findings of the Education Policy Institute report, Access and waiting times in children and young people’s mental health services, published in September 2017, on the proportion of children referred to specialist mental health services who are being denied access to those services; and if he will make a statement.

We acknowledge the need for focus on early intervention in children and young people’s mental health services, as set out in the Education Policy Institute report. The additional £1.4 billion that the Government has made available to transform children and young people’s mental health services will ensure that an additional 70,000 children and young people per year will receive treatment from National Health Service specialist services by 2020. The recently published green paper on children and young people’s mental health also includes a proposal to trial a four week waiting time for access to specialist NHS children and young people’s mental health services.