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 children's mental health services in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.

It is unacceptable that too many children and young people are not receiving the mental health care they need, and we know that waits for mental health services are far too long, including in areas such as the Runcorn and Helsby constituency. That is why we will recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers across both adult, and children and young people’s mental health services.

The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Education and NHS England to consider how to deliver our commitment of providing access to a specialist mental health professional in every school. Alongside this we are working towards rolling out Young Futures hubs in every community, offering open access mental health services for young people.