Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of resources available to (a) adult mental health services, (b) child and adolescent mental health services to provide people who are survivors of (i) current and (ii) historic child sexual abuse with therapeutic and other support services in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

No such assessment has been made. However, counselling services should be available as part of the wider mental health provision to support sexually abused children. This Government is committed to improving children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing as a whole, which will also benefit children and young people who have been victims of sexual abuse.

National Health Service funding for mental health services increased by £300 million last year. Historically, treatment targets have only been attached to physical health – a problem the Government is correcting with £1.25 billion announced in the last Budget. This will direct funding to mental health services and will ensure people, including those whose mental health has been affected through sexual abuse, get the treatment they need when they need it.

Our investment to date in the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme has made a choice of psychological therapies available for those who need them. IAPT include therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in response to sexual abuse as well as therapies for depression and anxiety disorders which may result from the traumatic of the abuse.

In March 2015, ‘Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation’ published in March 2015, set out cross-Government actions to prevent child sexual exploitation or, where it has happened, ensure victims and survivors get the support they need. The Department and its arms-length bodies are taking forward the health related recommendations, which focus on improving data on prevalence so that commissioners can develop the local service response to meet local needs.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued guidelines on ‘Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): The management of PTSD in adults and children in primary and secondary care’ issued in March 2005, reviewed in December 2011, and ‘Depression in adults: The treatment and management of depression in adults’, published in October 2009. The guidance includes recommendations for the care and treatment of people with psychological and mental health needs arising from sexual abuse.