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Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Tuesday 17th March 2020

Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of referrals of children with mental health issues referred for treatment from (1) GPs, and (2) other health professionals, are treated through child and adolescent mental health services; what is the average waiting time between referral and treatment; what are the reasons given for any rejected referrals; and what thresholds must be met for referrals to be successful.

Answered by Lord Bethell

The information cannot be provided because a national access and waiting times standard for children and young people’s health services has not yet been defined.

We are piloting a new four-week waiting time for children and young people’s mental health services in 12 areas to inform the development of a new national access and waiting times standard.

Information is not collected centrally on the clinical thresholds used by services to determine access to treatment or whether referrals meet these thresholds.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Tuesday 17th March 2020

Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 26 February (HL1564), for those referrals for treatment by child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) what was (1) the average waiting time, and (2) the assessment by CAMHS after the waiting period as opposed to the initial assessment from the referral.

Answered by Lord Bethell

The information cannot be provided because a national access and waiting times standard for children and young people’s health services has not yet been defined.

We are piloting a new four-week waiting time for children and young people’s mental health services in 12 areas to inform the development of a new national access and waiting times standard.

Information is not collected centrally on the clinical thresholds used by services to determine access to treatment or whether referrals meet these thresholds.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Tuesday 17th March 2020

Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 26 February (HL1565), what advice they give to local clinical commissioning groups on the support they should offer children on waiting lists for treatment by child and adolescent mental health services, and to the parents of such children; and what assessment they have made of the quality of support commissioned by local clinical commissioning groups for such children and parents.

Answered by Lord Bethell

NHS England and NHS Improvement have not published advice or guidance on support that clinical commissioning groups should offer to children on waiting lists and their parents/carers, nor have they assessed local approaches to providing this support.

Children and young people’s mental health covers a wide range of needs and there is no single service model. Commissioners and providers must consider the needs of children and young people and their families and set out how they will provide a range of services to form a comprehensive children and young people’s mental health offer in their local transformation plans.

These plans are whole-system plans that set out how local areas will work together to lead and manage change for children and young people’s mental health. These are refreshed and republished each year.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Wednesday 26th February 2020

Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the total NHS budget is spent on child and adolescent mental health services.

Answered by Lord Bethell

Approximately 1% of the total National Health Service budget was spent on children and young people’s mental health services in 2018/19 through clinical commissioning group spend and NHS specialised commissioning.

It should be noted that this does not include other areas that may include spending on children and young people’s mental health services, such as primary care and health and justice.

We are spending more than ever before to transform community mental health services, expand crisis care and improve services for children and young people. The Government has also committed to a further £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 of extra investment in mental health services to support 380,000 more adults and 345,000 more children.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Wednesday 26th February 2020

Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of referrals of children from school-based teams are referred for treatment through child and adolescent mental health services; and what is the average waiting time between referral and treatment.

Answered by Lord Bethell

This information is not available. The Mental Health Services Data Set does not contain data specific to ‘school-based teams’.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Wednesday 26th February 2020

Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what reasons are given for the rejection of referrals to child and adolescent mental health services from school-based teams.

Answered by Lord Bethell

This information is not available. The Mental Health Services Data Set does not contain data specific to ‘school-based teams’.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Wednesday 26th February 2020

Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any evidence of deterioration in the mental health of those referred to child and adolescent mental health services in the period between initial assessment at the point of referral and treatment; and how they assess any such deterioration.

Answered by Lord Bethell

The information is not held in the format requested.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Wednesday 26th February 2020

Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what support is available to the children on waiting lists for treatment by child and adolescent mental health services, and to the parents of such children.

Answered by Lord Bethell

We do not hold information nationally on what support is available for children on waiting lists and their parents.

Local clinical commissioning groups commission a wide range of services based on the needs of their patients, and this may include additional or online support that might be helpful to children and their parents when on a waiting list.


Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Wednesday 26th February 2020

Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of mental health trailblazer areas; and whether they plan to roll out the scheme more widely.

Answered by Lord Bethell

The first 59 Mental Health Support Teams will become operational very soon as part of the first wave of 25 ‘trailblazer’ areas, and 12 of these will also test the four-week waiting time for children’s and young people’s mental health services. In July 2019, NHS England confirmed a further 57 areas, where 123 new teams will be deployed from the end of 2020 to early 2021.

We are aiming to roll out Mental Health Support Teams to at least a fifth of the country by the end of 2022/23, with what we have learned from the first wave informing our approach.


Written Question
Prisoners: Mothers
Monday 9th July 2018

Asked by: Baroness Fall (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of children aged under 18 whose mothers are imprisoned in (1) HMP Askham Grange, (2) HMP Bronzefield, (3) HMP Downview, (4) HMP Drake Hall, (5) HMP East Sutton Park, (6) HMP Eastwood Park, (7) HMP Foston Hall, (8) HMP Low Newton, (9) HMP New Hall, (10) HMP Send, and (11) HMP Styal, are (a) taken into care, and (b) looked after by close relatives.

Answered by Lord Keen of Elie

The Government recognises that there is an impact on families and children when a woman is involved in the criminal justice system and that children of imprisoned mothers may be particularly affected by a custodial sentence. We have commissioned Lord Farmer to continue his work to enable us to understand what specific measures we can take to help women strengthen family ties, especially with their children, whilst serving sentences in the community, in custody and after they are released.

The number of women in each establishment serving sentences for non-violent offences and the average length of those sentences is set out in table one below.

The percentage of women in each establishment recorded as having children is set out in the table two below. The Ministry of Justice does not have this information broken down by type of offence.

The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the age or the arrangements made for the care of dependent children of women serving custodial sentences. The percentage of women in prison for non-violent offences who are also re-offenders can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Table 1: Female prison population at selected establishments by non-violent offences and average sentence length as at 31 March 2018.

Establishment

Non-violent offences

Average (mean) sentence length (days) for non-violent offences

Total population

Number

%

Askham Grange

118

81

69%

1411

Bronzefield

517

407

79%

879

Downview

325

248

76%

1596

Drake Hall

319

236

74%

1658

East Sutton Park

87

66

76%

1407

Eastwood Park

361

283

78%

821

Foston Hall

317

222

70%

1006

Low Newton

322

221

69%

1397

New Hall

373

258

69%

1111

Send

270

150

56%

1896

Styal

449

315

70%

1026

Note

  1. Total population figures include women serving custodial sentences, those held on remand, non-criminals and fine defaulters.
  2. Sentence length figures do not include those held on remand, non-criminals and fine defaulters.

Table 2: Percentage of women recorded as having children by establishment, 26 June 2018

Establishment

Percentage have children

Askham Grange

77%

Bronzefield

52%

Downview

52%

Drake Hall

68%

East Sutton Park

62%

Eastwood Park

71%

Foston Hall

63%

Low Newton

66%

New Hall

68%

Peterborough (female)

60%

Send

55%

Styal

67%

Notes:

  1. The number of children field is not a mandatory field within the NOMIS application and about 400 women across these establishments have no entry on the system.
  2. There is no functionality to record the age of children on NOMIS.
  3. There are likely to be cases where, when entered onto the system, a child was under the age of 18 but has since passed this milestone and is now classed as an adult.

  1. The figures relate to all women, not just those in prison for non-violent offences.