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 reduce waiting times for children and young people's mental health services in (a) the Vale of York CCG and (b) throughout the UK.

The Government’s Green Paper on children and young people’s mental health aims to improve the provision of mental health support through its key proposals, which includes creating new Mental Health Support Teams in and near schools and colleges.

The Mental Health Support Teams form part of the commitment in the NHS Long Term Plan to ensure that by 2023/24, at least an additional 345,000 children and young people aged 0-25 will be able to access support via National Health Service-funded mental health services and school– or college-based mental health support teams.

We have also committed at least a further £2.3 billion a year to mental health services by 2023/24. This will see spending for children and young people’s mental health services growing faster than the overall spend on mental health, which will itself be growing faster than the overall NHS budget.

The Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group is forecast to spend £4.2 million on children and adolescent mental health services in 2019/2020, including £470,000 additional investment as part of its commitment to achieve the Mental Health Investment Standard.