Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time for (a) access to NHS Talking Therapies, (b) an assessment and (c) first appointment with a therapist after seeing a GP was in each Clinical commissioning group in the last 12 months; and what the average waiting time for each was in each Integrated care system area in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
A table is attached that shows latest available information.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the average time taken for an individual to receive a mental health (a) assessment and (b) diagnosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No such formal assessment has been made. The demand on National Health Service mental health services has risen significantly as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in the cost of living on people’s mental health continue to be felt. The NHS is working to ensure that help is available for people as early as possible.
We are investing at least £2.3 billion of additional funding a year by March 2024 compared to 2018/19, to expand and transform mental health services in England so that two million more people can get the mental health support that they need. The Plan also commits to growing the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 staff in the same period.
NHS England is working towards implementing five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services as part of its clinical review of NHS Access Standards.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients waited over (a) 28, (b) 62 and (c) 90 days between their first and second appointment as part of treatment from the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme in the last year.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows the number of referrals for National Health Service talking therapies in England (formerly known as improving access to psychological therapies), as well as the waiting times for those referrals and the percentage of all referrals with first and second treatment in 2021/22. Note that some patients may have had more than one referral during that period.
Waiting time | Count of referrals | Percentage of all referrals with first and second treatment in 2021/22 |
Over 28 days | 284,832 | 47.8 |
Over 56 days1 | 151,810 | 25.5 |
Over 90 days | 76,649 | 12.9 |
All referrals with a first and second treatment in the year | 595,607 | 100 |
Source: NHS England - Psychological Therapies, Annual report on the use of IAPT services, 2021/22
1 First to Second treatment waiting times were not available for over 62 days. The 56-day threshold has been used instead.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to increase access to community child health services in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to reducing community health care waiting lists for children and young people. That is why the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets commitments to grow the community workforce, with increases in training places for district nurses and allied health professionals, and a renewed focus on retaining existing staff.
North Central London Integrated Care Board (ICB) and local authority partners are working collaboratively to improve support available to children and young people in North Enfield. In 2021, the local National Health Service carried out a detailed review of NHS community and mental health services for adults and children across North Central London to look at what services were being provided in each of the boroughs and whether they met the health needs of residents. As a result of these service reviews, the ICB has increased investment in children’s services over multiple years and is further boosting funding available to Enfield’s community children’s services in 2023/24. The ICB focus now is on the delivery and implementation of the core offer, ensuring that any additional investment is targeted where need is greatest.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on patients' mental health of waiting times for mental health care provision.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to investing £2.3 billion extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services by March 2024, enabling an extra two million people, including in Shropshire, to be treated by National Health Service mental health services.
The Department also provided an additional £500 million in 2021/22 to accelerate our expansion plans and help address waiting times for mental health services. The Department is also working with the NHS towards implementing five new waiting time standards for people requiring mental healthcare in both accident & emergency and in the community, to ensure timely access to the most appropriate, high-quality support.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the length of waiting lists for mental health services in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No assessment has been made as national access and waiting times standards for these services in England has not yet been defined or set.
We are working with NHS England on the introduction of new waiting time standards for both children and young people’s community-based mental health services and urgent referrals across all ages to community-based mental health crisis services as part of its clinically led review of National Health Service access standards. A date for their introduction has not yet been set.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the average waiting time for children and adolescent mental health services in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting lists for those services in those areas.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No such estimates have been made as a national access and waiting times standard for children and young people’s mental health services in England has not yet been defined or set. However, we are aware that the rise in demand for children and young people’s mental health services has meant an increase in waiting times for some people.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least an additional £2.3 billion a year by March 2024. This will allow 345,000 more children and young people, including children and young people to access National Health Service-funded mental health support and improve waiting times.
NHS England has also consulted on the potential to introduce a waiting time standard for children, young people and their families/carers presenting to community-based mental health services, to start to receive care within four weeks from referral. We are now working with NHS England on the next steps.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In February 2022, NHS England and NHS Improvement published the outcomes of its consultation on the potential to introduce five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services as part of its clinically-led review of NHS Access Standards. This included one for children, young people and their families or carers presenting to community-based mental health services to start receiving care within four weeks from referral. We are now working with NHS England and NHS Improvement on the next steps.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the length of waiting lists for counselling for victims of sexual violence.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The NHS Long Term Plan commits this Government to investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year to expanding and transforming mental health services by March 2024. This will enable an extra two million people, including victims of sexual violence, to be treated by NHS mental health services. In February 2022, NHS England also published the outcomes of its consultation on the potential to introduce five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services. Which will enable victims of sexual violence to be referred sooner. These give new access and waiting time standards are:
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many patients are currently under the care of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in NHS England; how many children are currently on waiting lists for assessment; what percentage of CAMHS patients currently transition to Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS); and what further support they are providing to CAMHS in order to provide more urgent (1) support, and (2) treatment, to children and young people with emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not collected centrally. The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Tier Framework is no longer used to commission or provide mental health services universally across England and the number of patients in such services is not identifiable in the NHS Mental Health Services Data Set.
Data on the number of children on a waiting list for assessment is not collected, as a singled national access and waiting time standard for children and young people’s mental health services has not yet been defined.
Data on the number of children and young people transitioning from children and young people’s mental health services to adult mental health services is not collected, as a pathway for analysis has not been defined.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population. We are supporting them to expand mental health services through the NHS Long Term Plan, which commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24. This will allow an extra two million people by 2023/24, including 345,000 more children and young people, to access National Health Service funded mental health support.
We also provided an additional £79 million for 2021/22 to allow around 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services.
NHS England has also consulted on the potential to introduce five new waiting time standards as part of its clinically led review of NHS access standards. One of these is that children, young people and their families/carers presenting to community-based mental health services should start to receive care within four weeks from referral. We are now working with NHS England on the next steps.
As a first step to introduce the five new waiting time standards, NHS England has recently shared and promoted guidance with its local system partners to consistently report waiting times to support the development of a baseline position.