Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the adequacy of waiting time for talking therapies in Lincolnshire.

Nationally, we plan to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services in England, to reduce delays and provide faster treatment. We will also introduce access to a specialist mental health professional in every school and roll out Young Futures hubs in every community.

Despite the challenging fiscal environment, the Government has chosen to prioritise the funding to deliver expansions of NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement and Support schemes, demonstrating our commitment to addressing the root cause of mental health issues and providing support for people with severe mental illness to contribute to the economy by remaining in or returning to work.

We have committed £26 million in capital investment to open new mental health crisis centres, reducing the pressure on busy emergency mental health and accident and emergency services, and ensuring that people have the support they need when they need it. Waiting times statistics for talking therapies in Lincolnshire are available on the mental health dashboard, at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-mental-health-dashboard/