Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February to Question 12328 on Mental Health Services: Children, what methodology his Department used to calculate the estimate of 345,000 children and young people accessing mental health support by 2023/24.

The NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan 2019/20 – 2023/24 sets out the increased funding and indicative workforce underpinning the NHS Long Term Plan commitments. This includes a projection of 345,000 additional children and young people aged 0-25 accessing support. This number is based on estimates of what the increase in workforce capacity will help achieve across the first five years of the Long Term Plan period, and are informed by practice in existing services.

As the Implementation Plan sets out, mental health care will be to the additional 345,000 through a wide range of new and enhanced services via National Health Service-funded mental health services and school- or college-based Mental Health Support Teams. NHS England is establishing a metric to monitor progress and will be testing this over the coming year.