Mental Health Services: Finance

(asked on 12th December 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the (a) revenue and (b) capital costs of (i) guaranteeing mental health treatment within a month, (ii) establishing walk-in mental health hubs for children and young people and (iii) providing specialist mental health support in all schools over the next five years.


Answered by
Maria Caulfield Portrait
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This question was answered on 18th December 2023

As part of its clinically led review of NHS Access Standards, the National Health Service is working towards implementing five new waiting time standards, one of which is that children, young people, and their families/carers presenting to community-based mental health services, should start to receive care within four weeks from referral. NHS England has recently published new data on mental health waiting times this year, to increase transparency and improve the quality of the data collected. Improvements are needed in the quality of data to make an accurate assessment of the cost implications of introducing the standards.

There are currently approximately 65 locally funded early support hubs in England, which are open to those aged between 11 and 25 years old who may not meet the threshold to receive NHS support. These are commissioned locally by integrated care boards and local authorities, working with local partners to understand local needs. In addition, on 25 October 2023, we announced £4.92 million of new funding to deliver and evaluate innovative community-based mental health and wellbeing support for young people at 10 sites across England until the end of 2024/25. Bids are currently being considered and the ten successful hubs will be announced in due course.

NHS England continues to roll out mental health support teams to schools and colleges across England. There are now approximately 400 mental health support teams in place, covering over three million children or around 35% of pupils in schools and colleges. We estimate this will increase to 44% by April 2024 and we are working to increase this coverage to 50% of pupils by March 2025.

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