Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
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 number of people with a learning disability detained in inpatient units for five or more years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In 2023/24, we are investing an additional £121 million to improve community support for people with learning disabilities and autistic people, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. This includes funding for children and young people’s keyworkers.
In November 2023, NHS England published national guidance setting out that a mental health in-patient stay for a person with a learning disability should be for the most minimal time possible and should be for assessments and treatments which can only be provided in hospital. This was followed by a letter from NHS England, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services to local system partners across health and social care to ask that they have a concerted focus on supporting those people, who no longer need to be in hospital, in moving back into their local community in a safe and timely way, highlighting five key elements that are critical to enable this to happen.
NHS England continues to work with local system partners to ensure that they have a good understanding of those people that are in hospital who are clinically ready for discharge, including those people that have been in hospital for more than five years, and that there are plans in place to support these people in leaving hospital when they are ready to do so.
In July 2022, we published the Building the Right Support Action Plan, which sets out cross-government actions to strengthen community support and reduce reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with learning disabilities and autistic people. As well as overseeing implementation of the Action Plan going forward, the Building the Right Support Delivery Board will maintain focus on quality of care and on reducing long stays.
To help ensure that a greater proportion of people with mental health needs, including those with learning disabilities, will be supported in their community, NHS England is investing £36 million over three years as part of the Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Inpatient Quality Transformation Programme.
Asked by: Baroness Garden of Frognal (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to funding (1) infrastructure, (2) guidance, and (3) training for education providers and potential partners, to support enrichment activity in schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is committed to ensuring young people have access to high-quality extra-curricular opportunities. The department understands these are an important part of a rich educational experience and can bring wider benefits to young people's mental health, confidence, social skills and general wellbeing.
The department supports a range of initiatives to expand access to high-quality extra-curricular activities. For example, the department is investing over £200 million a year in our Holiday Activities and Food programme and working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to offer the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award to all state secondary schools in England. This is in addition to working with DCMS to help schools ensure their pupils are getting the most out of the National Youth Guarantee, which is designed to ensure young people are given access to more activities, trips away from home and volunteering opportunities.
The department’s wider approach to enrichment is informed by the view that schools are best placed to understand and meet the needs of their pupils and should have flexibility to decide what range of extra-curricular activities to offer. Both pupil premium and recovery premium can be used to fund enrichment activities and in March 2022 the department updated the guidance to make this clearer to schools.
The department has also started to work alongside DCMS on the Enrichment Partnerships Pilot (EPP), which aims to improve the enrichment offer of up to 200 secondary schools in Education Investment Areas. The EPP has been awarded £3.381 million from HM Treasury’s Shared Outcomes Fund and will test whether greater coordination locally can enhance school enrichment offers and remove barriers to participation, create efficiencies (reducing the burden on school staff resources) and unlock existing funding and provision. The Centre of Learning run by our joint delivery partners, the National Citizen Service Trust and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, will also develop best practice guidance and resources. This will support relevant, high-quality enrichment coordination for the pilot, which is subsequently intended to support schools and improve access to and participation in enrichment in the future.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens 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 was for child and adolescent mental health services in (a) St Helens North constituency and (b) the North West in the latest period for which data is available; and what steps she is taking to reduce those waiting times.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Since 2018, we have invested an extra £2.3 billion a year to expand mental health services in England, with the aim of enabling two million more people, including 345,000 more children and young people to access mental health support.
We’re rolling out mental health support teams to schools and colleges. These now cover approximately 35% of pupils and are expected to reach 50% of pupils by March 2025. NHS England is also developing a new waiting time standard for children and their families to receive community-based mental health care within four weeks of referral.
Whilst the relevant data is not available at a constituency level, the following table shows the number of referrals for children and young people aged under 18 years old, supported through National Health Service-funded mental health, and waiting times for first contact between September and November 2023 for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB), North West Commissioning Region, and England:
Location | Number of referrals | Median waiting time between referral start date and first contact | 90th percentile waiting time between referral start date and first contact |
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB | 8,550 | 21 days | 469 days |
North West Commissioning Region | 26,125 | 11 days | 250 days |
England | 179,295 | 13 days | 225 days |
Source: Mental Health Services Data Set, NHS England
Notes:
The 90th percentile waiting time was 469 days meaning 10% of children and young people who received a first contact in this period waited over 469 days.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they have in place to improve coordination between schools, colleges, universities and support services to better assist students struggling with gambling addiction.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is committed to tackling gambling-related harms. While education settings are not mental health or gambling-related harm specialists, they are well placed to identify where a child or young person is struggling and help them to access support, linking them to NHS support and specialist services as needed.
Where gambling problems are affecting the mental health of young people, our programme of Mental Health Support Teams and senior mental health lead training supports schools and colleges to identify individuals in need of further support and make effective referrals to external agencies, to help young people get appropriate, timely support.
The department works closely with the higher education (HE) sector to promote and fund effective mental health support for university students. £15 million of funding this year from the Office for Students (OfS) will go to mental health support and the OfS-funded Student Space continues to provide students with free online mental health resources and confidential support on a range of topics, including addiction support. The OfS has also brought together HE providers and NHS trusts across each region in England to deliver better join up between university wellbeing support and NHS services.
Additionally, schools, colleges and universities have access to the NHS webpage 'Help for problem gambling'. This covers common indicators which could help identify whether individuals may be experiencing gambling-related harm, as well as providing initial signposting to the sources of support available to those in need. A link to the webpage can be found here: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/gambling-addiction/.
As part of the NHS Long Term Plan commitment to expand geographical coverage of treatment for those experiencing gambling-related harm, the National Problem Gambling Clinic in London offers specialist treatment and support for children and young people.
The government White Paper ‘High stakes: gambling reform for the digital age’, published in April 2023, announced the introduction of a statutory levy on gambling operators to fund the research, prevention and treatment of gambling-related harms. This presents an opportunity to consider how best to improve awareness and understanding of gambling-related harms amongst young people, and how to ensure availability of effective support across all educational settings.
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 assessment she has made of the current waiting times for CAMHS for children in (a) Darlington, (b) the North East and (c) England; and what steps she is taking to reduce those waiting times.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Since 2018, we have invested an extra £2.3 billion a year to expand mental health services in England, with the aim of enabling two million more people, including 345,000 more children and young people to access mental health support.
We are rolling out mental health support teams to schools and colleges. These now cover around 35% of pupils, and is expected to reach 50% of pupils by March 2025. NHS England is also developing a new waiting time standard for children and their families to start to receive community-based mental health care within four weeks from referral.
Whilst the relevant data is not available at a constituency level, the following table shows the number of referrals for children and young people aged under 18 years old, supported through National Health Service-funded mental health, and waiting times for first contact between September and November 2023 for NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), North East and Yorkshire Commissioning Region, and England:
Location | Number of referrals | Median waiting time between referral start date and first contact | 90th percentile waiting time between referral start date and first contact |
NHS North East and North Cumbria ICB | 13,085 | 9 days | 174 days |
North East and Yorkshire Commissioning Region | 31,140 | 12 days | 200 days |
England | 179,295 | 13 days | 225 days |
Source: Mental Health Services Data Set, NHS England
Notes:
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department collects data on students who self-report (a) depression, (b) bad nerves and (c) anxiety.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The mental health of children and young people is an absolute priority for this government. The department wants to ensure all students have the opportunity to thrive, no matter their background or the challenges they may face.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA, now part of the Joint Information Systems Committee) is responsible for collecting and publishing data about UK higher education. HESA collects data on the number of students declaring a disability, including mental health conditions. This is not disaggregated further to categories such as depression, bad nerves and anxiety.
Statistics covering the academic years 2014/2015 to 2021/2022 are available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-15.
From 2022/2023, students with multiple disabilities will disclose each of their disabilities instead of falling under a catch-all "multiple disabilities" category. However, depression, bad nerves, schizophrenia, anxiety, and other mental health conditions are still included in one mental health category.
The department collects data on various aspects of children and young people’s wellbeing and mental health. Key sources of this data, both from the department and other stakeholders, are collated into the annual State of the Nation report on Children and Young People’s Wellbeing. The report brings together a range of published information from government, academic, voluntary, and private sector organisations to provide a clear narrative for all those interested in the wellbeing of children and young people in England. The most recent report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-of-the-nation-2022-children-and-young-peoples-wellbeing.
Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Mental Health Bill will have provisions to help tackle loneliness.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government published a draft Mental Health Bill on 23 June 2023 and it remains our intention to bring forward a Mental Health Bill when Parliamentary time allows. The Bill is designed to reform the Mental Health Act 1983, which exists to be able to compel people to stay in hospital and be treated for a severe mental illness. The legislative reforms contained in the Bill aim to provide greater autonomy to individuals to inform their care and treatment, including children and young people. They also aim to ensure that inpatients, including those detained under the Mental Health Act, have improved support to access their rights under the Act. The Bill therefore does not include provisions to tackle loneliness.
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport launched the world’s first government strategy on loneliness in October 2018. It set out a clear vision for this country to be a place where we can all have strong social relationships. The Government’s work to tackle loneliness focuses on reducing the stigma associated with loneliness; supporting organisations across society to take action; and improving the evidence base on loneliness.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
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 reduce waiting times for children and young people to access community paediatric services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of funding (a) alternative therapy methods, (b) art therapy and (c) music therapy to help the mental wellbeing of children and young people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We have made no such assessment. Integrated care boards and local authorities work with local partners to understand local needs and commission services on that basis.
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 her Department is taking to (a) improve access to and (b) reduce waiting times for counselling for children and young people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are investing at least an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24, which will allow an extra 345,000 more children and young people to get the National Health Service-funded mental health support they need.
There are now almost 400 mental health support teams in place in schools and colleges across England so that more young people get mental health support. Mental health support teams now cover over three million children or around 35% of pupils in schools and colleges. We are aiming to increase this coverage to 50% by April 2025.
There are currently approximately 65 locally funded early support hubs in England. These hubs are open to those aged between 11 and 25 years old and, importantly, they are for anyone who may not meet the threshold to receive NHS support. This means children and young people experiencing feelings of anxiety or stress will have a physical space to go to in their community when their problems first emerge without the need for a referral.
On 25 October 2023, we announced £4.92 million of new funding to deliver and evaluate innovative mental health and wellbeing support for young people at 10 hub sites across England until the end of 2024/25. Bids are currently being considered and the ten successful hubs will be announced in due course.