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 provide mental health support to people affected by Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines advise women who are pregnant or think they could become pregnant that the safest approach is not to drink alcohol at all, to reduce risks to the baby to a minimum.

Public Health England's Start4Life programme also provides information via its website on the impact of drinking alcohol during pregnancy, including the risk of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

The Government recognises that FASD can have a significant impact on the early year’s development of children, their behaviours and their life chances. Early intervention services can help reduce some of the effects of FASD and prevent some of the secondary disabilities that result. Responsibility for commissioning these services lies with clinical commissioning groups.

The Government is providing additional investment of £1 billion per year by 2020/21 for mental health services in the National Health Service to meet the ambitions set out in NHS England’s ‘Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health’. This includes the expansion of improving access to psychological therapies services which will focus on people with long term conditions, including conditions arising from fetal alcohol syndrome.

The report is available at the following link:

www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/taskforce/imp/