Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce a national wellbeing measure for children to provide local authorities and national policymakers with data for the purpose of improving the mental health and wellbeing of young people.

The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever, giving mental health the same attention as physical health. We are reforming the National Health Service and have committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. The Government will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.

There are no current plans to introduce a national wellbeing measure for children. The Office for National Statistics publishes a range of children’s wellbeing measures. The Department maintains ongoing monitoring of the national data landscape and research on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, to support its policy making.