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 parenting support to prevent and treat conduct disorders and behavioural issues.

The Prevention Vision confirmed there is a strong case for acting early with good pre-conception care, fit and healthy parents and taking a ‘whole family’ approach when responding to problems. Becoming a parent is an important period and opportunity to offer evidence-based advice and support whilst creating opportunities to support a child’s very early development. The Prevention Green Paper will set out our thoughts in more detail.

Through our new workforce of Mental Health Support Teams, staffed by a new role of Education Mental Health Practitioners, we are providing new capacity for addressing the needs of children and young people with mild to moderate mental health issues. The first cohort of trainees started in early 2019 and the first wave of trailblazer areas will become operational during 2019. The Support Teams will provide evidence-based interventions, which may include family-based behaviour change interventions, which can be successfully delivered to help reduce child conduct problems.