Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve referral pathways and diagnostic rates for people with Tourette's Syndrome in Yorkshire and the Humber.

The majority of services for people with Tourette’s syndrome are commissioned locally by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), who are best placed to plan the provision of services subject to local prioritisation and funding. Decisions on how to improve referral pathways and diagnostic rates for Tourette’s syndrome will vary across individual CCGs located in the Yorkshire and Humber region, with each CCG taking into consideration attributes of its local population to assess the level of need.

At a national level, Health Education England is increasing the number of trained clinical psychologists, supporting a 60 per cent expansion in the clinical psychology training intake over the past two years. Clinical psychologists are well placed to develop new services and undertake bespoke development to respond to the needs of patients with Tourette’s syndrome.