Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to increase awareness of perinatal mental health during antenatal classes.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on antenatal care recommends that a discussion of mental health issues should be offered to pregnant women at booking (ideally 10 weeks). This is the minimum that commissioners should be contracting against with maternity providers. The Department does not collect data on the quality of mental health advice given by healthcare professionals during the antenatal period.

The Department is investing £365 million from 2015/16 to 2020/21 in perinatal mental health services, and NHS England is leading a transformation programme to ensure that by 2020/21 at least 30,000 more women each year are able to access evidence-based specialist mental health care during the perinatal period. A key element of the programme is to increase awareness and skills across the workforce, supporting better identification of perinatal mental illness, early intervention and improved recovery rates.