To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to develop a cross-departmental approach to promoting young people’s mental health; what assessment he has made of cross-departmental responsibilities for promoting young people’s mental health; and if he will make a statement.
Answered on
5 November 2019
Protecting our children’s mental health is a priority for this Government, and a core part of the NHS Long Term Plan. The Government made available £1.4 billion to improve specialist children and young people’s mental health services between 2015-21.
The Government’s Green Paper on children and young people’s mental health recognises this is a cross-cutting issue which impacts on the work of multiple departments and arms-length bodies. It aims to improve the provision of mental health support so that children and young get the best possible start in life.
The proposals in the Green Paper have the potential to significantly improve early intervention and prevention by expanding the current children and young people’s mental health workforce and bolstering the capacity of schools and NHS services.
Given that the emotional and social development of children is a broad and complicated issue, the responsibility for the area sits across multiple departments including the Department for Health and Social Care, The Department for Education, the Department of Work and Pensions, and the Department for Housing Communities and Local Government.