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 reduce waiting times for access to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Epping Forest.

We know that children and young people across the country are waiting too long to access National Health Service mental health services.

In the Government’s first 12 months, nearly 40,000 more children and young people received support compared to the previous 12 months. This is helped by delivering our commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers this Parliament three years ahead of schedule. But more is needed. Transforming the system will take time, but we are committed to delivering a new approach to mental health.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out ambitious plans to boost mental health support across the country, including children and young people’s mental health services. We are accelerating the rollout of mental health support teams in schools and colleges to reach full national coverage by 2029. We are also expanding access to early intervention and community-based support, including through Early Support Hubs and Young Futures Hubs, so that children and young people can access help earlier and closer to home. Decisions about the design and delivery of local mental health services in Epping Forest are made by local commissioners and providers to meet the needs of their population. As prioritised in the NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework, we are taking action to reduce the longest waits for specialist children and young people’s mental health services by addressing variation across the country and reducing inequalities in access. We will ensure that services for children and young people are as productive as possible in order to bring down the length of time children and families are left waiting.

We are also developing a new cross-Government mental health strategy for England, covering all ages, to be published later this year. It will be informed by the findings and recommendations from the Independent Review into Prevalence and Support for Mental Health, ADHD And Autism, and will align with the modern service frameworks for children and young people and severe mental illness, and the new Mental Health Act.