Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have commissioned peer-led mental health support for new mothers in the last five years; and if he will make it his policy to encourage CCGs to commission that support.

We do not collect the requested information. Information available from the Mental Health Services Dataset only includes activity related to specialist secondary mental health care, and therefore excludes lower levels of intervention such as peer support.

The National Institute for Health Research has commissioned an evidence review on the effectiveness of different models of peer support in perinatal mental health, to support future development and quality improvement. This work is ongoing.

Through the NHS Long Term Plan we will expand the peer-support worker role as a key area of workforce development across mental health, including perinatal mental health.