Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the average waiting time for children and adolescent mental health services in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting lists for those services in those areas.

No estimate has been made as there is no universal waiting time standard across all children and young people’s mental health services. Waiting times data are available for services where a waiting time standard is in place. These include access to early intervention in psychosis and children and young people’s eating disorders, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-mental-health-dashboard/

In February 2022, NHS England published the outcome of its consultation on the potential to introduce five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services. This includes for children, young people and their families or carers presenting to community-based mental health services to receive care within four weeks from referral. We are working with NHS England on on the next steps following this consultation.

In addition, the NHS Long Term Plan commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to enable an additional 345,000 children and young people to receive National Health Service-funded mental health support. This includes eight mental health support teams either in place or planned for primary, secondary and further education settings in the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care System.