Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps she has taken to reduce the waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services in Selby and Ainsty constituency.

It is the responsibility of the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board to make available appropriate provision to meet the mental health and other care needs of the local population in Selby and Ainsty.

Nationally, we are supporting the expansion and transformation of mental health services for children and young people through the NHS Long Term Plan, as part of the accompanying investment of at least an extra £2.3 billion a year by March 2024, with the aim for an additional 345,000 children and young people to be able to get the mental health support they need. We also provided an additional £79 million for 2021/22 to allow around 22,500 more children and young people to access community mental health services and around 2,000 more to access eating disorder services.

We continue to roll out mental health support teams in schools and colleges across the country offering early support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issues.

In addition, the National Health Service is working towards implementing five new waiting time standards for people requiring mental healthcare in both accident and emergency and in the community, to ensure timely access to the most appropriate, high-quality support. Four of these include children and young people.