Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Fourth Report of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee of Session 2022-23 on Rural Mental Health, HC248, published on 9 May 2023, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations in the section entitled Rural mental health service provision, policy and strategy development.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We remain committed to supporting thriving rural communities, as set out in our report Unleashing Rural Opportunity, published in June 2023.
Since the launch of the EFRA Committee’s inquiry in 2021, considerable progress has been made to help ensure access to mental health services in rural areas. The Government published its Response to the EFRA Committee Report on Rural Mental Health in October 2023.
The response recognised that people living and working in rural areas may face specific challenges in accessing the mental health services that they need and set out the various actions being taken forward to address mental health needs.
Key actions include:
To help improve the service and support on offer to farmers we will make up to £500,000 available to deliver projects that support mental health in the farming sector. This will build on the support already on offer through the Farming Resilience Fund, which has benefitted over 19,000 farmers to date.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential (a) merits of implementing a mental health support team plus model in schools and (b) impact of such an approach on the mental wellbeing of children and young people.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In December 2017, the government published a consultation to gather views on the proposals set out in its publication, ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision’. The green paper is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a823518e5274a2e87dc1b56/Transforming_children_and_young_people_s_mental_health_provision.pdf.
The government response to the consultation was published in July 2018: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5b583d30ed915d0b6985cc21/government-response-to-consultation-on-transforming-children-and-young-peoples-mental-health.pdf. It outlined a commitment to implement three core proposals that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England, the Department for Education and Health Education England would jointly take forward, one of which was to establish new Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs), working in or near schools and colleges. MHSTs add value to support that settings already have in place, and more broadly are part of a wider programme of mental health transformation set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
As of 31 March 2023, MHSTs covered 35% of pupils in schools and learners in further education settings in England. We are extending coverage of MHSTs to an estimated 44% of pupils and learners by the end of this financial year, and at least 50% by the end of March 2025.
The Early Evaluation of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme, published by the National Institute for Health Research in February 2023, revealed substantial progress in MHST implementation, despite challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this was a process evaluation, early impacts include improved school and college staff knowledge and confidence in dealing with mental health issues, improved access to support for some groups, and improvements in partnership working. The study also found that the experiences of the majority of children and young people who had contact with an MHST were positive. The early evaluation is available here: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-social-sciences/social-policy/BRACE/trailblazer.pdf.
Work is already underway with partners to ensure that learnings are used to inform current and future practice. Since the MHST Trailblazers became operational in 2018/19, the Education Mental Health Practitioner curriculum has been strengthened in response to feedback on needs such as learning disabilities and autism, challenging behaviour and support for parents. In addition, a new Senior Wellbeing Practitioner role was launched in 2023 to support widening the MHST skillset and career progression opportunities.
The department, together with partners, will continue to listen to feedback and a planned phase 2 longer-term outcome evaluation, to inform MHST roll out and drive improvements in evidence-based mental health and emotional wellbeing support for children and young people.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
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 time taken for children to receive (a) SEN assessments and (b) mental health treatment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Education to ensure that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time. We are doing this through working together to implement the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, which was published on 2 March 2023. This sets out the Government’s mission to establish a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND and in alternative provision, so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes, and are well prepared for adulthood and employment.
The Department of Health and Social Care is also investing at least an additional £2.3 billion a year in expanding National Health Service mental health services by March 2024, compared to 2018/19, and have set out our aim in the NHS Long Term Plan for an additional 345,000 children and young people to be able to get the mental health support they need. NHS England is also developing a new waiting time standard for children and their families to start receiving community-based mental health care within four weeks of referral.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure a knowledge of (a) mental health and (b) neurodiversity among (i) school teachers and (ii) school students.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department is committed to ensuring that all pupils can reach their potential and receive excellent support from their teachers. The Teachers’ Standards sets clear expectations that teachers must understand the needs of all pupils, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Consideration of SEND underpins both the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Core Content Framework (CCF) and Early Career Framework (ECF) which were both produced with the support of sector experts. ITT courses and ECF-based programmes must be designed so that new teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level. This includes the requirement in Standard 5, that all teachers must have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils.
The department reviewed the CCF alongside the ECF during 2023, in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation and groups of sector experts, including SEND specialists. This included a public call for evidence. Following this review, the updated and combined Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF) was published on 30 January 2024, for delivery from September 2025.
The department’s review of content for the ITTECF paid particular attention to the needs of trainees and early career teachers (ECTs) when supporting pupils with SEND. There is now significantly more content related to adaptive teaching and supporting pupils with SEND. The department has also made edits to existing statements to improve inclusivity for SEND throughout the framework, including new content for trainees and ECTs on who to contact to provide support with any pupil mental health concerns.
The department is also offering all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by 2025, enabling them to introduce effective whole school approaches to mental health and wellbeing. Over 14,400 settings have claimed a grant so far, including more than 7 in 10 state-funded secondary schools, and the department has also recently made available second grants for settings who have lost their trained lead. The department’s quality assured training course provides the practical knowledge and skills to implement a whole school or college approach to promoting mental wellbeing. The course also helps senior mental health leads to facilitate the development of school staff, to ensure that all staff can recognise and understand the process to respond to mental health concerns.
The department has also recently launched two new resources to help trained mental health leads and wider school and college staff to promote and support pupil mental health, both of which are hosted on the Mentally Healthy Schools site. The resource hub signposts practical resources and tools to embed whole-school or college approaches and the targeted mental wellbeing toolkit gives practical advice and tools to help schools and colleges identify the most effective targeted support options for their setting. They are both available here: https://mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/whole-school-or-college-resources/.
The department wants to support all young people to be happy, healthy and safe. The department wants to equip them for adult life and to make a positive contribution to society. That is why the department has made Relationships Education compulsory for all primary school pupils, Relationships and Sex Education compulsory for all secondary school pupils from September 2020, and Health Education compulsory for pupils in all state-funded schools. In Health Education, there is a strong focus on mental wellbeing, including a recognition that mental wellbeing and physical health are linked. It is important that pupils understand that good physical health, for both men and women, contributes to good mental wellbeing. The purpose of teaching pupils about mental health is to give them the information they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing, recognise issues in themselves and others and, when issues arise, seek support as early as possible from appropriate sources.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the level of funding available for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No such assessment has been made. It is for individual local commissioners to allocate funding to mental health services, including child and adolescent mental health services, to meet the needs of their local populations. Integrated care boards are expected to continue to meet the mental health investment standard by increasing their investment in mental health services in line with their overall increase in funding for the year. Nationally, overall spend on children and young people’s mental health services has increased from £841 million in 2019/20 to just over £1 billion in 2022/23.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of dentistry provision in the youth secure estate.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has statutory responsibility for the direct commissioning of health services in the children and young people secure estate. Intercollegiate Healthcare Standards for children and young people in secure settings were first published in 2013 to support high quality healthcare provision for children in secure settings, and were refreshed in 2023. These standards are available at the following link:
https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/healthcare-standards-children-young-people-secure-settings
They formed the basis of an outcome-based dental service specification, which is available at the following link:
All children in the secure estate receive individualised care according to need and following an assessment via the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool. This is an evidence based, validated health assessment tool for under 18-year-olds, which screens for physical health, substance misuse, mental health and neurodisability. This would include any dental care needs.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the role of safe spaces for play in the healthy development of children; and if she will have discussions with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on steps his Department is taking to help ensure that children have access to such spaces.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In January 2024, the Department published the guidance Improving the mental health of babies, children and young people. This recognises that outdoor learning can provide the building blocks for successful learning and attainment of engagement, enjoyment, social skills and self-regulated behaviour, experiencing success, and wellbeing and confidence.
The Government has put policies in place to require local authorities to provide access to open spaces for sport and physical activity, which is important for the health and well-being of communities. Officials in the Department are engaging across the Government on this, and a wide range of issues, to promote healthier places.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of young people in the youth secure estate being reported as having tooth decay in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has statutory responsibility for the direct commissioning of health services in the children and young people secure estate. All children in the secure estate receive individualised care, following an assessment via the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool. This is an evidence based, validated health assessment tool for under 18-year-olds, which screens for physical health, substance misuse, mental health and neurodisability. This would include any dental care needs. Data on the number of young people in the youth secure estate reported as having tooth decay is not held centrally.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much and what proportion of NHS expenditure on mental health services was spent on children and young people’s mental health services in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
National Health Service mental health spend from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 totaled £12.7 billion. As a proportion of total recurrent NHS mandate spend of £142.4 billion, this was 8.9%. Of that mental health spend, £1.9 billion or 15% was spent on children and young people’s mental health services, including mental health support teams in schools.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, What progress her Department has made on implementing the Government's Autism Strategy 2021-2026; and what steps she plans to take to implement the objectives in 2024.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department worked closely with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to develop a refreshed cross-government autism strategy, which was published in July 2021 and includes children and young people. The national strategy sets out the department’s vision to make life fundamentally better for autistic people, their families and carers by 2026.
The department has made significant progress on implementation of the strategy.
Examples of key actions taken have included:
In 2024, DHSC is prioritising updating the Autism Act statutory guidance by working across government, including with the department, to support the NHS and local authorities to deliver improved outcomes for autistic people in line with the national autism strategy. This updated guidance will be subject to public consultation in 2024. Delivery of the cross-government actions set out in the national autism strategy remains a priority for 2024 and progress will continue to be monitored.