Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people aged 18 and under waited more than (a) one month, (b) two months, (c) three months, (d) six months and (e) one year for mental health treatment in each of the most recent five years for which figures are available.

This information is not centrally collected.

Improving access and reducing waiting times for children and young people’s mental health services, and improving data and transparency on these services are government priorities.

A new child and adolescent mental health services minimum dataset is in development which will contain data on the waiting times for children and young people waiting for mental health treatment. Our current estimate is that data will be collected nationally from spring 2016.

We have launched the children and young people’s mental health and well-being taskforce, which is considering how to improve access and reduce waiting times for children and young people. A report of the Taskforce’s findings will be published in spring 2015.

We have also introduced the first waiting time standards for mental health. Achieving Better Access to Mental Health Services by 2020 outlines the first waiting time standards for mental health and includes a standard which will ensure that by 2016 at least 50% of people of all ages referred for early intervention in psychosis services will start treatment within two weeks. This is backed by £33 million investment.