Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 29 October (HL10675), whether they intend to take steps to reverse the 26 per cent increase in referrals to children's mental health services in England over the past five years; and if so, what steps they intend to take.

The Government is committed to widening access to children and young people’s mental health services to address unmet need and ensure that more children and young people get the support they need, at the right time.

Through the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, we have made an additional £1.4 billion available for children’s mental health service transformation. Overall investment in children and young people’s mental health services was £1.05 billion in 2017/18. We are on track to meet the commitment to ensure that an additional 70,000 children and young people access community mental health services annually by 2020/21.

In addition, the Government has announced further plans to improve early intervention for mild to moderate mental health conditions, through better join up with schools and colleges, to address rising needs and ensure that referrals to specialist services are appropriate. To deliver the key proposal to improve access to services, we are creating a new workforce of Mental Health Support Teams, working in and near schools and colleges, with trained staff to deliver interventions to young people to support their mental health.