Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of working with comparator countries to understand causal factors in trends of mental health disorders in children and young people.

Whilst there has not been a formal assessment of the trends in children and young people’s mental health problems in England compared to other countries, work continues with partners across the United Kingdom and internationally on a range of issues relating to mental health, including mental health disorders in children and young people.

Through resources such as the Global Burden of Disease study, we closely monitor international policy developments in mental health to harness insights. For example, the six new 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres being piloted across England are inspired by the community model of mental health care originally pioneered in Trieste, Italy.

Estimates of the rates and trends in the prevalence of adults’ and children and young people’s mental health problems are reported in the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey series and the Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey series.