Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will commission within this Parliament research into the effect on children's mental health of living with (a) income poverty, (b) debt, (c) poor housing and (d) in circumstances in which one or more adults have mental health problems.

The Department has commissioned NHS Digital to undertake a Children and Young People’s Mental Health Survey to examine the prevalence of mental disorders. The survey report is expected to be published in autumn 2018.

The report is planned to include estimates of prevalence of mental health conditions in relation to parents’ household income and the Index of Multiple Deprivation.

The Index of Multiple Deprivation combines information from seven domains to produce an overall relative measure of deprivation. The domains are:

- Income Deprivation;

- Employment Deprivation;

- Education, Skills and Training Deprivation;

- Health Deprivation and Disability;

- Crime;

- Barriers to Housing and Services; and

- Living Environment Deprivation.

The report is also planned to include information on children and young people’s mental health prevalence in relation to parental scores on the General Health Questionnaire 12 (GHQ-12), which is designed to screen for general mental health conditions (non-psychotic psychiatric morbidity).