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 ensure adequate provision of early support for people with poor mental health that live independently.

We know prevention is better than a cure, and early intervention is vital. Part of successful early intervention is ensuring that people, including those that live independently, have access to the mental health support that they need. As part of our mission to build a National Health Service fit for the future, we will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to child and adult services to reduce delays, bring waiting times down, and intervene earlier.

Our early commitment to roll out Young Futures hubs is also key to this and will offer open-access mental health support for young people in every community. In addition, there are currently approximately 65 locally funded early support hubs in England open to those aged 25 years old and under. During 2024/25, the Department is running a Shared Outcomes Fund project, backed by £8 million, to boost and evaluate the impact of 24 of these existing early support hubs.