Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase access to children’s mental health services in Warwick and Leamington constituency.

We are expanding and transforming mental health services, including in the Warwick and Leamington constituency, through the NHS Long Term Plan. The plan commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24, so that an additional two million people, including 345,000 children and young people, are able to access National Health Service funded mental health support.

We also provided an additional £79 million for 2021/22 to allow around 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services.

This includes rolling out mental health support teams to schools and colleges across England. There are currently 287 mental health support teams in place in around 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issue. Mental health support teams now cover 26% of pupils a year earlier than originally planned and this will increase to 399 teams, covering around 35% of pupils, by April 2023, with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024.

Eight teams are in place or planned in the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care System area.