Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the £365 million perinatal mental health fund has been allocated to the development of psychological support services in neonatal units; and how many neonatal units have benefited from that perinatal mental health funding.

All specialist inpatient and community perinatal mental health services commissioned as part of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health transformation programme, which is backed by a £365 million investment covering the period from 2015/16 to 2020/21, are for women in the perinatal period with moderate to severe mental illness. This includes women accessing neonatal units. By April 2019, all clinical commissioning groups in the country will have at least one specialist community perinatal mental health service, and therefore all neonatal units will be able to draw on the expertise of the staff at these services.

NHS England has also invested in multidisciplinary perinatal mental health clinical networks across the country to drive forward change, focusing on collaborative working to develop local, integrated pathways and support early identification of those at risk of mental illness in the perinatal period to enable better outcomes for women in all communities.

Mothers with a baby in a neonatal unit and also accessing specialist perinatal mental health community teams are equally able to engage with the perinatal mental health care pathway.

Further information about the pathway is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/perinatal-mental-health-care-pathway.pdf