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 ensure that young people with mental health problems can access treatment on the NHS.

In June last year the Government announced a £20.5 billion annual real terms uplift for the National Health Service by 2023/24. Following this, the NHS has published its Long Term Plan which sets out what the NHS will deliver for patients over the coming years. An additional investment of £2.3 billion a year will go into the NHS for mental health services by 2023/24, ensuring growth in investment in mental health services for children and young people faster than both NHS spending and mental health spending overall.

Over the next five years, the NHS will therefore continue to invest in expanding access to community-based mental health services to meet the needs of more children and young people, so that by 2023/24 at least an additional 345,000 children and young people aged 0-25 will be able to access support via NHS funded mental health services and school or college-based Mental Health Support Teams.