Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the training of more child psychiatrists; and if he will make a statement.

‘Stepping forward to 2020/21: The mental health workforce plan for England’ was published in July. This sets out steps for recruiting and retaining 21,000 new staff across the mental health system, with the expectation that 19,000 of these places would be filled by staff employed directly by the National Health Service. The plan includes tangible steps to increase the numbers of junior doctors choosing psychiatry.

The plan can be accessed at:

https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/person-centred-care/mental-health/mental-health-workforce-plan