Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Open Dialogue approach to mental health care; and whether he plans to support its wider adoption within the NHS.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
NHS England's Culture of Care Standards reference Open Dialogue as an evidence-based approach for use in inpatient mental health, learning disability, and autism settings. NHS England is currently evaluating the national Culture of Care Programme, which is based on these standards, to understand the programme’s impact and to inform future improvement. The standards remain and are expected to be maintained, and are available at the following link:
Additionally, Open Dialogue: Development and Evaluation of a Social Network Intervention for Severe Mental Illness (ODDESSI) is a large-scale programme of research into crisis and continuing mental health care within the National Health Service. It is evaluating whether Open Dialogue can be developed and delivered within NHS services in a way that is acceptable to staff, including peers, and service users, and whether it can be effectively integrated into existing services. The trial is also assessing whether Open Dialogue leads to improved clinical outcomes and represents value for money, as well as examining the experiences of service users, carers, and staff. Further information on ODDESSI is available at the following link:
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what metrics his Department is using to measure progress in improving mental health outcomes, and how these compare with those used for physical health.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The NHS Oversight Framework sets out how NHS England will assess and oversee providers and integrated care boards against a range of metrics, promoting improvement while helping to identify where organisations need support, as well as those that are performing well. This ensures public accountability for performance and provides a foundation for how NHS England works with systems and providers to support improvement.
In addition, the NHS Mental Health Services Data Set, which is internationally recognised, provides numerous metrics to track mental health outcomes. This includes the standards for NHS Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP), that at least 60% of people with first episode psychosis have started treatment with a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended package of care with a specialist EIP service within two weeks of referral, and that 95% of children with an eating disorder receive treatment within one week for urgent cases and four weeks for routine cases.
The NHS Talking Therapies Data Set also provides key metrics, including progress against the current standards that 75% of people completing talking therapies treatment waited less than six weeks for their first appointment, and 95% waited less than 18 weeks, and the target that at least 50% of people who complete treatment should move to recovery.
The Department also publishes a range of public health profiles at the following link:
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/
These contain information on population health. The indicators in these profiles are presented at national, regional, and local levels. The presentation on the Fingertips platform supports the ability to track trends over time, to monitor inequalities in health outcomes for different population subgroups, and supports local benchmarking of performance. Data is organised into themed profiles. There are three on mental health, including suicide prevention, and a larger number on various aspects of physical health.
But the Government recognises we need to go further. That is why, in our new Mental Health Strategy call for evidence, we have explicitly asked for examples of how data could be used more innovatively to improve mental health and wider societal outcomes. The call for evidence closes on 10 July.
We have also commissioned an Independent Review into the prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism, the final recommendations from which will shed further light on how we can better measure progress in improving mental health outcomes.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to require schools to educate Year 6 pupils on county lines.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Within the relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance, pupils in secondary education are taught about county lines and exploitation. This includes developing pupils’ understanding of how to determine whether other children, adults, or sources of information are trustworthy, and how to recognise when a relationship may be unsafe, both for themselves and for others.
Where relevant topics are taught, pupils are made aware of the legal provisions that protect children and young people. This includes laws relating to grooming or exploiting children into criminal activity, such as gang involvement and county lines drug running.
Schools have the flexibility to tailor their curriculum to meet local needs, introducing topics earlier in an age-appropriate way while drawing on high-quality, evidence-based resources.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of levels of progress between waiting lists for mental health services and elective physical health treatments.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Government recognises that people are waiting too long to access National Health Service mental health services. We have already taken significant steps to stabilise and improve NHS mental health services, but there is much more to do. Transforming the system will take time, but we are committed to delivering a new approach through a new mental health strategy for England, which will be published later this year.
Since July 2024, progress has been made in tackling waiting lists for adult community mental health services, alongside continued service expansion. We have recruited 8,500 extra mental health staff, three years ahead of schedule. The waiting time standard for NHS Talking Therapies, that 75% of patients should have a first appointment within six weeks of referral, and that 95% should have a first appointment within 18 weeks of referral, are regularly met.
NHS England’s Medium Term Planning Framework for 2026-27 sets the expectation that integrated care boards reduce the longest waits for children and young people’s community mental health services by improving productivity and reducing local inequalities and unwarranted variation in access.
The following table shows the number of open adult community mental health referral-spells waiting for a second contact at the end of the reporting period, as well as the number of open children and young people’s mental health referral-spells waiting for a first contact at the end of the reporting period, for July 2024 and March 2026, and specifically that the numbers of open referral-spells waiting to start meaningful treatment in adult community mental health services has decreased by approximately 18,500:
Measure name | July 2024 | March 2026 |
Number of open adult community mental health referral-spells waiting for a second contact at the end of the reporting period | 150,380 | 131,781 |
Number of open children and young people’s mental health referral-spells waiting for a first contact at the end of the reporting period | 227,985 | 239,785 |
Mental health waiting lists differ from elective physical health waiting lists in a number of important ways. Mental health pathways are typically more varied and less standardised, with treatment often involving multiple contacts. There are also differences in how waiting times are measured.
That is why the Department is working with NHS England to improve the measurement and consistency of waiting time data across mental health services, including through the development of measures that will consistently capture when a patient has received meaningful help and started treatment across different areas.
This work will support future decisions on the potential role of waiting time standards as part of wider service reform. The Mental Health Strategy will be informed by the Call for the Evidence, and recommendations from the independent review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism, alongside wider evidence and engagement with clinicians and people with lived experience.
The Government remains committed to giving mental health the same focus and priority as physical health. Through the forthcoming cross-Government Mental Health Strategy, we will continue to take action to improve access, tackle inequalities, and reduce waiting times so that people receive the support they need as early as possible.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to introduce waiting time standards across all mental health services as part of the forthcoming Mental Health Strategy.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Government recognises that people are waiting too long to access National Health Service mental health services. We have already taken significant steps to stabilise and improve NHS mental health services, but there is much more to do. Transforming the system will take time, but we are committed to delivering a new approach through a new mental health strategy for England, which will be published later this year.
Since July 2024, progress has been made in tackling waiting lists for adult community mental health services, alongside continued service expansion. We have recruited 8,500 extra mental health staff, three years ahead of schedule. The waiting time standard for NHS Talking Therapies, that 75% of patients should have a first appointment within six weeks of referral, and that 95% should have a first appointment within 18 weeks of referral, are regularly met.
NHS England’s Medium Term Planning Framework for 2026-27 sets the expectation that integrated care boards reduce the longest waits for children and young people’s community mental health services by improving productivity and reducing local inequalities and unwarranted variation in access.
The following table shows the number of open adult community mental health referral-spells waiting for a second contact at the end of the reporting period, as well as the number of open children and young people’s mental health referral-spells waiting for a first contact at the end of the reporting period, for July 2024 and March 2026, and specifically that the numbers of open referral-spells waiting to start meaningful treatment in adult community mental health services has decreased by approximately 18,500:
Measure name | July 2024 | March 2026 |
Number of open adult community mental health referral-spells waiting for a second contact at the end of the reporting period | 150,380 | 131,781 |
Number of open children and young people’s mental health referral-spells waiting for a first contact at the end of the reporting period | 227,985 | 239,785 |
Mental health waiting lists differ from elective physical health waiting lists in a number of important ways. Mental health pathways are typically more varied and less standardised, with treatment often involving multiple contacts. There are also differences in how waiting times are measured.
That is why the Department is working with NHS England to improve the measurement and consistency of waiting time data across mental health services, including through the development of measures that will consistently capture when a patient has received meaningful help and started treatment across different areas.
This work will support future decisions on the potential role of waiting time standards as part of wider service reform. The Mental Health Strategy will be informed by the Call for the Evidence, and recommendations from the independent review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism, alongside wider evidence and engagement with clinicians and people with lived experience.
The Government remains committed to giving mental health the same focus and priority as physical health. Through the forthcoming cross-Government Mental Health Strategy, we will continue to take action to improve access, tackle inequalities, and reduce waiting times so that people receive the support they need as early as possible.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, at what pace he expects the NHS to reduce waiting times for mental health services.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Government recognises that people are waiting too long to access National Health Service mental health services. We have already taken significant steps to stabilise and improve NHS mental health services, but there is much more to do. Transforming the system will take time, but we are committed to delivering a new approach through a new mental health strategy for England, which will be published later this year.
Since July 2024, progress has been made in tackling waiting lists for adult community mental health services, alongside continued service expansion. We have recruited 8,500 extra mental health staff, three years ahead of schedule. The waiting time standard for NHS Talking Therapies, that 75% of patients should have a first appointment within six weeks of referral, and that 95% should have a first appointment within 18 weeks of referral, are regularly met.
NHS England’s Medium Term Planning Framework for 2026-27 sets the expectation that integrated care boards reduce the longest waits for children and young people’s community mental health services by improving productivity and reducing local inequalities and unwarranted variation in access.
The following table shows the number of open adult community mental health referral-spells waiting for a second contact at the end of the reporting period, as well as the number of open children and young people’s mental health referral-spells waiting for a first contact at the end of the reporting period, for July 2024 and March 2026, and specifically that the numbers of open referral-spells waiting to start meaningful treatment in adult community mental health services has decreased by approximately 18,500:
Measure name | July 2024 | March 2026 |
Number of open adult community mental health referral-spells waiting for a second contact at the end of the reporting period | 150,380 | 131,781 |
Number of open children and young people’s mental health referral-spells waiting for a first contact at the end of the reporting period | 227,985 | 239,785 |
Mental health waiting lists differ from elective physical health waiting lists in a number of important ways. Mental health pathways are typically more varied and less standardised, with treatment often involving multiple contacts. There are also differences in how waiting times are measured.
That is why the Department is working with NHS England to improve the measurement and consistency of waiting time data across mental health services, including through the development of measures that will consistently capture when a patient has received meaningful help and started treatment across different areas.
This work will support future decisions on the potential role of waiting time standards as part of wider service reform. The Mental Health Strategy will be informed by the Call for the Evidence, and recommendations from the independent review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism, alongside wider evidence and engagement with clinicians and people with lived experience.
The Government remains committed to giving mental health the same focus and priority as physical health. Through the forthcoming cross-Government Mental Health Strategy, we will continue to take action to improve access, tackle inequalities, and reduce waiting times so that people receive the support they need as early as possible.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made in tackling mental health waiting lists since July 2024.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Government recognises that people are waiting too long to access National Health Service mental health services. We have already taken significant steps to stabilise and improve NHS mental health services, but there is much more to do. Transforming the system will take time, but we are committed to delivering a new approach through a new mental health strategy for England, which will be published later this year.
Since July 2024, progress has been made in tackling waiting lists for adult community mental health services, alongside continued service expansion. We have recruited 8,500 extra mental health staff, three years ahead of schedule. The waiting time standard for NHS Talking Therapies, that 75% of patients should have a first appointment within six weeks of referral, and that 95% should have a first appointment within 18 weeks of referral, are regularly met.
NHS England’s Medium Term Planning Framework for 2026-27 sets the expectation that integrated care boards reduce the longest waits for children and young people’s community mental health services by improving productivity and reducing local inequalities and unwarranted variation in access.
The following table shows the number of open adult community mental health referral-spells waiting for a second contact at the end of the reporting period, as well as the number of open children and young people’s mental health referral-spells waiting for a first contact at the end of the reporting period, for July 2024 and March 2026, and specifically that the numbers of open referral-spells waiting to start meaningful treatment in adult community mental health services has decreased by approximately 18,500:
Measure name | July 2024 | March 2026 |
Number of open adult community mental health referral-spells waiting for a second contact at the end of the reporting period | 150,380 | 131,781 |
Number of open children and young people’s mental health referral-spells waiting for a first contact at the end of the reporting period | 227,985 | 239,785 |
Mental health waiting lists differ from elective physical health waiting lists in a number of important ways. Mental health pathways are typically more varied and less standardised, with treatment often involving multiple contacts. There are also differences in how waiting times are measured.
That is why the Department is working with NHS England to improve the measurement and consistency of waiting time data across mental health services, including through the development of measures that will consistently capture when a patient has received meaningful help and started treatment across different areas.
This work will support future decisions on the potential role of waiting time standards as part of wider service reform. The Mental Health Strategy will be informed by the Call for the Evidence, and recommendations from the independent review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism, alongside wider evidence and engagement with clinicians and people with lived experience.
The Government remains committed to giving mental health the same focus and priority as physical health. Through the forthcoming cross-Government Mental Health Strategy, we will continue to take action to improve access, tackle inequalities, and reduce waiting times so that people receive the support they need as early as possible.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to scale and spread effective community-based mental health support models through the forthcoming Mental Health Strategy.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
We are developing a new cross-Government Mental Health Strategy for England, to be published later this year. We have launched a Call for Evidence to inform the strategy, which closes on 10 July. The Call for Evidence seeks practical, implementation-focused evidence on how to deliver the shift from hospital to community and from treatment to prevention. The Call for Evidence invites views on how effective community-based models can be designed and scaled across different local areas, and what is needed to implement these models successfully in practice.
We are also piloting six community-based mental health centres, which bring together services to provide open-access, joined-up support closer to home, improve continuity of care, and reduce pressure on inpatient services. As set out in our response to the Health and Social Care Committee in March this year, these pilots are being evaluated to assess impacts on access, patient experience, and system pressures. Our response to the Health and Social Care Committee can be found at the following link:
https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/53333/documents/298391/default/
This evidence will directly inform the development of the Mental Health Strategy and our approach to scaling and spreading effective community-based models.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve access for people living with mental illness to new and innovative treatments.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
We know that one size does not fit all when it comes to mental health, and that is why a range of innovative treatments are needed. We are considering this in the new Mental Health Strategy for England we are currently developing, to be published later this year. We have launched a Call for Evidence to shape the strategy which closes on 10 July 2026.
The Government is committed to accelerating mental health research into innovative treatments, including through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). We have awarded over £100 million to NIHR research programmes on mental health since July 2024 which are driving discoveries into better treatments and care pathways to enhance the lives of people living with mental health conditions. For example, £1.5 million was awarded by the NIHR in October 2025 to 17 innovative health technology projects to reduce waiting times for children and young people who need mental health support.
We also work closely with wider research funders like Wellcome who have just launched a global research prize with Nature, looking to accelerate breakthrough interventions for depression, anxiety, and psychosis.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential relationship between the findings of the interim report of the Independent Report into Young People and Work, led by Alan Milburn, and waiting lists for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and adult community mental health services.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Department welcomes the interim report of the Independent Review into Young People and Work led by Alan Milburn, which provides an important assessment of the drivers of youth inactivity. The report highlights that ill health, including mental health, is now a primary driver of young people becoming and remaining not in education, employment, or training and the need for flexibility in how services respond to the needs and circumstances of young people.
The Government recognises the strong relationship between mental health and labour market participation, and that poor mental health can contribute to disengagement from education and work.
The interim report is diagnostic and does not set out final recommendations. The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Work and Pensions and others to consider its findings, as well as the challenges and opportunities it presents, and will do the same for the final report published later this year.
Demand for children and young people’s mental health services has increased significantly in recent years, and waiting lists remain a key challenge, with delays in accessing support affecting outcomes and life chances. Improving mental health outcomes for children and young people is a key objective of the forthcoming cross-Government Mental Health Strategy. The strategy will be informed by a range of evidence, including the Milburn Review and the independent review into prevalence and support for mental health, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The strategy will look beyond the National Health Service and consider the role of schools, workplaces, the voluntary sector and local government in promoting positive mental health and supporting earlier understanding. It will build on existing commitments to increase access to mental health support for children and young people, including expanding Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges to full coverage by 2029, and reducing the longest waits for specialist children and young people’s mental health services by tackling variation across the country and reducing inequalities in access.
The Keep Britain Working Report, published in November 2025, identified a “culture of fear” in workplaces around health and disability and highlighted disparities across different workplaces in the United Kingdom in the levels of effective support for employees and employers. This lack of support can compound the issue of fear which results in a system that does not serve employees. However, it also set out the vital role employers can play in addressing this.
The Department for Work and Pensions is now working with volunteer employers, providers, and regions through a Vanguard Phase to test and refine approaches to help disabled workers and workers with long-term health conditions, including mental health conditions, receive the support they need to remain and thrive in employment. These include developing effective stay in work and return to work practices, and building the evidence needed to spread good practice.