Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve mental health services for children and young people.

The NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan 2019/20 – 2023/24 sets out that an additional 345,000 children and young people in England will have access to support via National Health Service-funded mental health services and school-or college-based mental health support teams by 2023/24.

The first 59 mental health support teams are becoming operational and 123 teams will be in place by early 2021 with the programme rolling out to at least 20-25% of the country by 2023.

We are also piloting a new four-week waiting time for children and young people’s mental health services in 12 areas and incentivising every school or college to identify and train a senior lead for mental health.