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 improve access to specialist mental health support for disabled children who are (a) victims of and (b) witnesses to serious crime.

Many children and young people (CYP) face complex emotional and mental health challenges arising from trauma.

Over the next decade, to deliver the Government’s missions, the National Health Service will play a key part in addressing the needs of these children, and the NHS planning guidance for 2025/26 is clear that integrated care boards should reduce local inequalities in access to CYP mental health services, between disadvantaged groups and the wider CYP population.

We will deliver on our commitment to get every child who needs it, including disabled children who are victims of and witnesses to serious crime, access to mental health support in school, and over the course of this year we will roll that support out to nearly a million extra children. Under Government plans, all pupils will have access to mental health support in school by 2029/30.