Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the £79m Government funding to support children and young people’s mental health is planned to be spent; and when local Clinical Commissioning Groups and councils are planned to be able to access that funding.

This funding will allow an additional 22,500 children and young people to access community mental health services and an additional 2,000 children and young people to able to access eating disorder services compared to what was planned as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, and will accelerate the roll-out of mental health support teams in schools so that we reach our target of 20-25% coverage a year earlier than planned.

The funding is being made available to support the 2021/22 National Health Service operational planning and contracting round which is ongoing. Through this process, local systems will work with their partner organisations, including clinical commissioning groups and local authorities, to agree their mental health finance planning for financial year 2021/22.