Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to tackle mental health challenges in children from low-income families during school holidays.

The department has invested over £200 million every year since 2022 in free holiday club places for children from low-income families through the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme with all 153 local authorities in England delivering in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays.

The HAF programme supports disadvantaged children and their families with enriching activities, provides them with healthy food, helps them to learn new things, improves socialisation and benefits their health and wellbeing during school holidays.

The right support should be available to every young person that needs it, which is why the department will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school.

The government will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.