Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for counselling services for unpaid carers.

The demand on National Health Service mental health services has risen significantly as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in the cost of living on people’s mental health continue to be felt. This means that some people including unpaid carers are facing waiting times that are longer than we would like. The NHS is working to ensure that help is available for people as early as possible.

The NHS Long Term Plan commits to investing £2.3 billion extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services by March 2024, enabling an extra two million people, including unpaid carers, to be treated by NHS mental health services, including Talking Therapies. The Plan also commits to growing the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 staff in the same period.

The NHS is also working towards implementing five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services as part of its clinical review of NHS Access Standards.