Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department has provided to support voluntary and community sector suicide prevention organisations in (a) Coventry and (b) the West Midlands in each of the last five years; and which organisations in those areas have received that funding.

Local clinical commissioning groups are responsible for funding decisions in their areas and may choose to provide funding to, or commission services from, voluntary and community sector suicide prevention organisations. We do not hold data on funding for suicide prevention organisations at a National Health Service clinical commissioning group level, and as such do not hold data on funding for organisations in Coventry of the West Midlands.

On 27 March we published our Mental Health Recovery Action Plan, backed by an additional £500 million of targeted investment, to ensure support is in place for those impacted by the pandemic. This investment includes a £15 million prevention and early intervention stimulus package, which will help level up mental health and wellbeing across the country by investing in activity to promote positive mental health in the most deprived local authority areas in England. The package includes funding for a range of mental health initiatives in each of Birmingham, Sandwell, Stoke-on-Trent, Walsall and Wolverhampton. Many of these initiatives have the potential to reduce suicide through increased mental health support. £100,000 has been awarded to specific initiatives in Sandwell, Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton focusing on suicide prevention work carried out by voluntary organisations.

The funding provided through the Mental Health Recovery Action Plan also includes £5 million in 2021-22 to be made available specifically to support suicide prevention voluntary and community sector organisations. We will announce more details soon on how organisations, including from Coventry and the West Midlands, can apply.