Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the oral Answer of 21 October 2014 from the Minister of State for Care and Support, Official Report, column 749, on mental health nurses, what significant improvements to perinatal mental services have been made.

The Government is working to improve perinatal mental health services, collaborating closely with partner organisations including NHS England, Health Education England and the Institute of Health Visiting.

Specialised Perinatal Mental Health Services (Mother and Baby Units) are a part of a wider network of services that provide care for this patient group and the commissioning of the ‘specialist’ (local) and ‘specialised’ (national) pathway is a responsibility shared between NHS England, clinical commissioning groups and local authorities.

Health Education England is working with partners to ensure that pre and post registration training in perinatal mental health is available to enable specialist staff to be available to every birthing unit by 2017.

The Department has funded the Institute of Health Visitors to train a network of 375 perinatal mental health visitor champions. This training initiative addresses the requirements that are necessary for health visitors to manage anxiety, mild to moderate depression and other perinatal mental disorders and to understand the impact of these disorders on the child, the family and society, and to know when to refer on.

NHS England will, through its Maternity and Children Strategic Clinical Networks support the continued development of maternity and perinatal mental health networks to drive improvements to access, quality of care and inter-service communication that enhances the experience of women and families generally, and more specifically for the large numbers of women who are at risk of poor mental health during pregnancy and following childbirth.