Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 lockdown restrictions on the mental health of children and young people (a) living in a household that has fallen behind with financial payments, (b) living in a household that is domestically volatile and (c) attending school settings that do not provide face-to-face mental health support services within the educational setting.

The ‘Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2020 - Wave 1 follow up to the 2017 survey’, published on 22 October 2020, found that:

- children aged 5-16 years with a probable mental disorder were more than twice as likely to live in a household that had fallen behind with payments than children unlikely to have a mental disorder; and

- among 11-16 year old girls, 63.8% with a probable mental disorder had seen or heard an argument among adults in the household, compared with 46.8% of those unlikely to have a mental disorder. The association was not evident in boys.

The report is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2020-wave-1-follow-up