Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to provide mental health support, including counselling, to people living in rural communities as part of the Major Conditions Strategy.

The Major Conditions Strategy will cover prevention to treatment for six broad conditions including mental ill health and we will continue to work closely with stakeholders, citizens and the National Health Service in coming weeks to identify actions that will have the most impact.

We are already taking steps to increase access to mental health services, including for people in rural settings. The NHS Long Term Plan commits to investing an additional £2.3 billion a year into mental health services, including through integrated care board (ICB) baseline funding. As part of this, we are increasing access to NHS Talking Therapies across all parts of England, including rural areas. NHS Talking Therapies provide evidence-based support for a range of conditions.

ICBs are responsible for decisions about the provision of services in their area and how funding allocations should be used to meet the needs of people in their areas. There are a range of adjustments made in the ICB allocations formula to account for how the costs of providing health care may vary between different types of rural and urban areas.