Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to ensure that child and adolescent mental health services will have adequate capacity to meet demand when the covid-19 lockdown restrictions are lifted.

National Health Service mental health services have remained open and, in his letter to local NHS organisations setting out the third phase of the NHS response to COVID-19, Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, has asked that local areas maintain the growth in the number of children and young people accessing care mental health care, as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

We are also taking action to ensure that children and young people have access to support in schools. Our £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return programme will support staff to respond to the emotional and mental health pressures some children and young people may be feeling. We also continue to establish mental health support teams in and around schools and colleges.

This complements the new Relationships, Sex and Health Education curriculum, which makes mental health a key part of primary- and secondary-school education.