Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on ensuring that all children and young people have timely access to appropriate mental health interventions, since the publication of the Health and Social Care select committee's report, Children and Young People's Mental Health, HC 17, on 9 December 2021.

In 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement consulted on five waiting time standards, including four for children and young people. These are as follows:

- For an ‘urgent’ referral to a community based mental health crisis service, a patient should be seen within 24 hours from referral, across all ages;

- For a ‘very urgent’ referral to a community based mental health crisis service, a patient should be seen within four hours from referral, for all age groups;

- Patients referred from accident and emergency should be seen face-to-face within one hour, by mental health liaison or children and young people‘s equivalent service; and

- Children, young people and their families/carers presenting to community-based mental health services, should start to receive care within four weeks from referral.

The consultation response was published on 22 February 2022. We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement on the next steps for the proposed mental health access and waiting measures.