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 help ensure that mental health services are accessible to secondary school children.

There are currently approximately 65 locally funded early support hubs in England offering early easy access mental health interventions to thousands of children and young people aged 11 to 25 years old, including secondary school children. The Department is running a £8 million Shared Outcomes Fund project throughout 2024/25 to boost and evaluate the impact of 24 of these existing early support hubs, including two in London.

In addition, we will roll out Young Futures hubs in every community. They will provide open access mental health support for children and young people in every community. The Department is working across Government to deliver our commitment of a specialist mental health professional in every school.