Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department takes to help ensure that Government funding allocated to local authorities for children's and young people's mental health services is used effectively to meet their needs; and what oversight there is for the effective use of those funds.

Local authority commissioned public health services in England are funded through a ring-fenced Public Health Grant, which has been maintained in the Chancellor’s Financial Statement.

Local authorities are best placed to make individual funding decisions based on local need. We will continue to work with the Local Government Association and professional bodies to share evidence and guidance that allows councils to make the best decisions to meet local need.

Each local authority must submit a return to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, setting out how the Grant has been spent at the end of each financial year.