Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps with local partners to ensure the availability of (a) parenting and (b) other programmes to improve the mental health of (i) infants, (ii) children and (iii) young people mental health.

The Government has a bold new ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever. Launched in August 2022, the three-year Family Hubs and Start for Life programme provides approximately £300 million to 75 local authorities in England with high levels of deprivation, to improve outcomes for families with babies. This includes £100 million for bespoke perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationship support, laying the foundations for cognitive, emotional, and physical development.

Nationally, we will recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers across children and adult mental health services to reduce delays and provide faster treatment, which will also help ease pressure on busy children and young people’s mental health services.

We will also provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school in England, so that mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, can be identified early on and prevented from developing into more serious conditions in later life. We will also roll out open access Young Futures hubs for children and young people in every community. This national network is expected to bring local services together to deliver support for teenagers at risk of being drawn into crime or facing mental health challenges.