Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made in implementing the actions in chapters 3 and 4 of the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Green Paper, published in December 2017.

We have made good progress and we remain committed to carrying out the Green Paper’s core proposals. In 2018 we announced the first 25 trailblazer sites, delivering 59 mental health support teams (MHSTs), the first of which started to become operational in early 2020. Twelve of the first 25 sites are also testing four-week waiting times. In July 2019, NHS England confirmed a further 57 areas, developing 123 new MHSTs.

The Department for Education has committed to provide training for a senior mental health lead in all state-funded schools and colleges in England by 2025. Eighty-two per cent of schools and 77 per cent of post-16 institutions have someone leading on mental health.

The Department for Education has also allocated £6 million to support schools to implement the new Relationship, Sex and Health Education curriculum; and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care hosted three social media summits in 2019 to discuss tackling online harmful content.