Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 26 February (HL1565), what advice they give to local clinical commissioning groups on the support they should offer children on waiting lists for treatment by child and adolescent mental health services, and to the parents of such children; and what assessment they have made of the quality of support commissioned by local clinical commissioning groups for such children and parents.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have not published advice or guidance on support that clinical commissioning groups should offer to children on waiting lists and their parents/carers, nor have they assessed local approaches to providing this support.

Children and young people’s mental health covers a wide range of needs and there is no single service model. Commissioners and providers must consider the needs of children and young people and their families and set out how they will provide a range of services to form a comprehensive children and young people’s mental health offer in their local transformation plans.

These plans are whole-system plans that set out how local areas will work together to lead and manage change for children and young people’s mental health. These are refreshed and republished each year.