Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken recent steps to help reduce waiting times for the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in people under the age of 21.

We remain committed to investing in expanding and transforming National Health Service mental health services in England by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan. This will allow an additional two million people, including 345,000 children and young people, to get the mental health support they need, such as a diagnosis for bipolar disorder. We aim to increase the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 healthcare professionals by 2023/24 to support this expansion and transformation of services.

NHS England has consulted on the potential to introduce five new mental health-related waiting time standards as part of its clinically-led review of NHS access standards. As a first step, NHS England has shared and promoted guidance with its local system partners to consistently report waiting times to support the development of a baseline position.