Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of loneliness on the overall wellbeing of disabled young people.

There is significant evidence of the impact of loneliness of those of all ages with a disability’ the most recent being the report by SENSE published this month. We want to ensure that integrated approaches to assessment and planning of a young person’s needs include mitigation of loneliness as part of a holistic approach to wellbeing. For example, Education, Health and Care plans under the new statutory framework for special educational needs and disability should be developed with young people and their families, and focus on the outcomes which reflect the needs and wishes of the young person.

A measure of social isolation has now been included in the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework 2013/14 for the first time, marking an important step towards measuring whether the lives of young social care users having made the transition to adulthood who are experiencing isolation are improving.

The Department for Education is leading work to improve the quality of teaching about mental health within Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) lessons in schools and has commissioned the PSHE Association to produce guidance for schools on teaching about mental health safely and effectively. This guidance will be available in spring 2015. Such guidance deals with issues about promoting resilience and prevention of mental health in schools.

Following an in-depth look at mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people, the Government has set out a blue-print for improving care over the next five years. The Government report of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Well-Being Taskforce’s findings, Future in mind, published on 17 March 2015, sets out a clear national ambition in the form of key aspirations that the Government would wish to see by 2020.