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 reduce waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services.

The Department is piloting a four week waiting time for access to specialist mental health treatment for children and young people in 12 areas of England as an integral part of the implementation programme for the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision Green Paper. The pilots will inform a recommendation to the Government on the potential development of access and waiting-time standards for all children and young people who need specialist mental health services.