Perinatal Mental Health

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Wednesday 25th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Baroness raises a very important point, particularly on voices not being heard. I am sure she heard the announcement on maternity safety made by the Secretary of State on Monday. He highlighted the issue of women’s voices and that women are so often not listened to. That is particularly the case among the minority ethnic groups the noble Baroness referred to. I assure her that that is taken into account. I am glad to say that there are record numbers of women accessing community perinatal mental health services. On the point raised, that is why it is for local areas to serve their local communities in the way she describes.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, given the £8.1 billion annual cost of untreated perinatal mental illness, will the Government mandate a ring-fenced, inflation-proof budget for perinatal mental health services within ICBs to ensure sustainable long-term investment, rather than relying purely on discretionary funding?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I do not share the view that it is discretionary funding, not least because what matters are the outputs, which are, as I described, that a record nearly 65,000 women accessed a specialist community perinatal mental health service or maternal mental health service in the 12 months to April 2025. That gives some idea of the scale—that is a 95% increase compared with four years earlier. So the output is absolutely there. Was it ever the case that all needs were met? No, it was not, even before the change to the planning guidance and the ring-fencing. I emphasise again that this Government’s whole approach is to ensure that local communities are properly served. That is why ICBs can make decisions about how they provide what I regard as first-rate services.