Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress Health Education England has made in ensuring that a module on perinatal mental health is included in core training for midwives.

Health Education England (HEE) has been working with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and Royal College of Midwives, to ensure midwives in training have a core training module focussing on perinatal mental health, with the intention that this will be in place for those entering training in 2015.

HEE has developed three perinatal mental health e-learning modules, in partnership with the Institute of Health Visiting, focusing on both the recognition and interventions needed around perinatal depression and other mental health disorders.