Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the prevalence of diagnosed mental health conditions in children in each National Statistics socio-economic classication in each of the last 10 years.

The most recent prevalence survey of children and young people was commissioned by the Department. It took place in 2017 and was published by NHS Digital in November 2018. This information is not collected annually and the previous survey was published in 2004.

The survey looked at the extent of mental ill health in the 5-19 year old population and considered a range of demographic, socioeconomic, relationship, and health-related characteristics. It did not use National Statistics Socioeconomic classifications.

NHS Digital made an assessment of the 2017 survey, in ‘Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, Trends and characteristics’, which reported on associated demographic factors, including family functioning, household income, receipt of benefits, and neighbourhood deprivation. This is available at the following link:

https://files.digital.nhs.uk/A0/273EE3/MHCYP%202017%20Trends%20Characteristics.pdf

This assessment of the survey reported that living in a low-income household or with a parent in receipt of income-related benefits was associated with higher rates of mental disorder in children.