Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS statistics that one in six children aged between six and 16 have a probably mental health disorder, whether the Government plans to provide additional support for youth mental health services.
We have committed to invest an additional £2.3 billion a year to expand mental health services in England by 2023/24. This will enable a further 345,000 children and young people to access National Health Service-funded mental health support.
In 2021/22, we made £500 million available to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. This included £79 million to ensure that approximately 22,500 more children and young people could access community mental health services and a further 2,000 to access eating disorder services. We have also accelerated the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges to 20% to 25% of the country, which will increase to over 500 teams, covering approximately 35% of pupils by 2023/24. We have also launched a public call for evidence to support the development of a new cross-Government ten-year plan for mental health which is open until 7 July 2022.