Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for mental health services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
More and more people are getting support with their mental health thanks to investments made through the NHS Long Term Plan. Unfortunately, demand has risen as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in the cost of living on people’s mental health continues to be felt. This means that some people are facing waiting times that are much longer than we would like.
We are providing record levels of investment and increasing the mental health workforce to expand and transform National Health Service mental health services, to expand access and reduce waiting times. Between 2018/19 and 2023/24, NHS spending on mental health has increased by £4.6 billion in cash terms, as compared to the target of £3.4 billion in cash terms set out at the time of the Long Term Plan. The NHS Long Term Plan committed to grow the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 staff between 2019/20 and 2023/24. We are making positive progress, delivering two-thirds of this, or 17,000 additional staff, by September 2023, with further significant growth expected by the end of this financial year.
The NHS is also working towards implementing five new waiting time measures for people requiring mental healthcare in both accident and emergency and in the community, for both adults, and children and young people. This includes working towards improving the quality of data that we have on waiting times for people requiring mental healthcare, in both accident and emergency and in the community. NHS England began publishing this new data in 2023 to improve transparency and drive local accountability.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to educate young people about the importance of health screening programmes in later life.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Health education is mandated from key stages one to four. One of its overarching objectives is teaching pupils about physical health and mental wellbeing, to give them the information that they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing. This should enable them to recognise what is normal and what is an issue in themselves, and when issues arise, how to seek support as early as possible from appropriate sources.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to increase girls' access to mental health services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Health policy is devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive. In England, through the NHS Long Term Plan, the Government is providing record levels of investment and increasing the mental health workforce, to expand and transform National Health Service mental health services in England. Almost £16 billion was invested in mental health in 2022/23, enabling 3.6 million people to be in contact with mental health services, a 10% increase on the previous year. Of these, nearly 560,000 were females under the age of 18 years old, a 12% increase on the previous year.
We are rolling out mental health support teams to schools and colleges in England. There are now around 400 mental health support teams in place, covering 3.4 million children, or approximately 35% of pupils. We estimate that this will increase to 44% by April 2024, and we are working to increase this coverage to 50% of pupils by March 2025.
In addition, we announced in October 2023 that £4.92 million would be available for 10 early support hubs in England. We are now providing an additional £3 million to expand the number of hubs to 24 across the country. This £8 million overall package will improve access for children and young people to vital mental health support, offering early interventions to improve wellbeing before their condition escalates further.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the HM Chief Inspector of Prisons publication entitled Report on an unannounced inspection of HMYOI Wetherby by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (20 November – 7 December 2023), published on 5 March 2024, what assessment he has made of the causes of levels of self-harm by female inmates.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
In 2021, the Youth Custody Service and NHS England co-commissioned the Centre for Mental Health to undertake a review into the needs of girls in the children and young people secure estate.
The report found that trauma-related stress is then communicated differently by boys and girls. More often, girls communicated stress through internalising behaviours such as self-harm, and boys through externalising behaviours.
Any girl in the secure estate who is at risk of self-harm will be supported through the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) process, ensuring she has a dedicated case manager, and girls with the most complex needs will receive additional monitoring and more intensive case management.
Asked by: Lisa Cameron (Conservative - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of evidence-based digital mental health innovations on reducing waiting lists for child and adolescent services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
To date, there has been no assessment made to determine the potential impact of evidence-based digital mental health innovations on reducing waiting lists for child and adolescent services. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has made recommendations on four products for self-help digital cogitative behavioural therapy technologies for children and young people with low mood or anxiety, through their Early Value Assessment process. Whilst there was no definitive determination on the impact to waiting lists, early evidence suggests that these types of interventions can improve access for patients and can supplement existing treatments whilst patients are waiting for further treatment.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce the waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services in the Tees Esk Wear Mental Health Trust region.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing at least an additional £2.3 billion a year in expanding and transforming National Health Service mental health services by March 2024, compared to 2018/19. As part of this, an extra 345,000 more children and young people will be able to get the NHS-funded mental health support they need.
NHS England is working on implementing five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services, including one for children and their families and carers to start receiving community-based mental health care within four weeks of referral.
A consultation pilot began in Teesside in October 2023, which has allowed families to be re-directed to appropriate support, and for services to be able to reinvest time back into the backlog of assessments. The trust is currently reviewing the implementation and extension of this pilot into Durham and Darlington.
Asked by: Baroness Browning (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address barriers to discharge from mental health inpatient units for autistic people and people with learning disabilities related to the provision of (1) suitable housing, and (2) social care support.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 26 January 2024, we published statutory guidance on discharge from mental health inpatient settings. This guidance sets out key principles for how National Health Service bodies and local authorities across adult and children’s services should work together to support people to be discharged from mental health inpatient services, including mental health inpatient services for people with a learning disability and for autistic people. This guidance states that strong links should be made with relevant community services prior to, and during, the person’s stay in hospital, and that this should include links in relation to meeting the person’s needs related to health, social care, education, housing, and any other individual needs.
In 2023/24, we are investing an additional £121 million to improve community support, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. This includes funding for children and young people’s keyworkers. We continue to support the delivery of new supported housing by providing capital subsidies to providers, through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund and the Affordable Homes Programme in England. We have also made available up to £8.6 billion over this and next financial year, to support adult social care and discharge.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will ask the Chief Medical Officers to update their review of the potential impact of mobile phone usage from a young age on children's development.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education recently reviewed the evidence, and found that there is still no clear scientific consensus of a negative impact of screentime and social media use on the mental health, or neurological or functional development of children and young people, and concerns are generally not supported through population-level data. Whilst further research is needed to better understand these issues, there are no plans to ask the Chief Medical Officers to update their review.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to improve access to mental health services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We increased investment in mental health services by close to a billion pounds in 2022-23 compared to the previous year, with almost £16 billion going on mental health care. This enabled 3.6 million people to access mental health support, a 10% increase from 2021-22.
We are also funding 24 early support hubs for young people across England, one of which will serve constituents in the Honourable Member’s Luton constituency.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the backlog of ADHD assessments.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including access to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. NICE guidelines for ADHD diagnosis and management aim to improve the diagnosis of ADHD and the quality of care and support people receive.
Data on the number of people waiting for an ADHD diagnosis and how long they have been waiting is not currently collected nationally but may be held locally by NHS trusts or ICBs.
We know how vital it is to have timely diagnoses for ADHD, and we are committed to reducing assessment and diagnosis delays. We are exploring options to improve data collection and reporting on ADHD assessment waiting times to help improve access to ADHD assessments in a timely way and in line with the NICE guidelines. The National Institute for Health and Care Research has commissioned a research project to provide initial insights into local ADHD assessment waiting times data collection. NHS England is also currently scoping a national programme of work on ADHD.
With respect to assessments for ADHD for children and young people, we know that children and young people often seek an ADHD diagnosis through Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. The NHS Long Term Plan commits an additional £2.3 billion a year for the expansion and transformation of mental health services in England by March 2024.