Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his policy to pursue a non-statutory strategy in matters concerning early intervention and school and community-based measures for the mental health support of children and young people; what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of a non-statutory basis for that strategy; and what consideration he gave to providing a statutory basis for these services.

‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision: a green paper’ and the NHS Long Term Plan set out the policy concerning early intervention and school and community-based measures for the mental health support of children and young people. These do not require a statutory basis to implement. No assessment of the merits of a non-statutory or statutory approach for these services has been made since the publication of the green paper and the Long Term Plan.

We continue to consider the Committee’s recommendations in the context of the development of a new long term, cross-Government plan for mental health. We will update our response to the Committee’s recommendations once the final plan is published. A call for evidence to inform the development of the plan is open until 7 July 2022.