Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) help prevent and (b) increase early intervention for mental ill health.
The Shared Outcomes Fund Early Support Hubs project aims to increase the Government's understanding of the effectiveness of early intervention and prevention support for children and young people's mental health delivered in a community setting and strengthen the evidence base for early intervention. By evaluating the Early Support Hubs as a delivery model for early intervention, the project aims to build a strong evidence base, assess the impact of these services, and inform potential future expansion of the model. The evaluation of the project aims to report its findings by Summer 2025.
There are currently approximately 65 locally funded early support hubs in England offering early easy access mental health interventions to thousands of children and young people aged 11 to 25 years old, including those from low-income families.
As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, we will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services in England to reduce delays and provide faster treatment.
Additionally, Every Mind Matters is a campaign run by NHS England, which features the mental health tool My Mind Plan at the heart of their resources and advice for those facing mental health problems.