Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the strength of the link between perinatal mental illness and (a) emotional and (b) behavioural problems in children; and if he will make a statement.

Perinatal mental health problems can have long-standing effects on children’s emotional, social and cognitive development. To build understanding about what works in mitigating the impacts of adverse childhood experiences, which includes having a parent with a severe mental illness, the Department has commissioned a review of existing systematic reviews on the effectiveness of interventions for children and young people (3-18 years) who have experienced adverse childhood experiences. This work, by the end of the year, will draw on learning from other parts of the United Kingdom and the world, and will report later this year.

The Department is investing £365 million from 2015/16 to 2020/21 in perinatal mental health services, and NHS England is leading a transformation programme to ensure that, by 2020/21, at least 30,000 more women each year are able to access evidence-based specialist mental health care during the perinatal period.