Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) mental health services and (b) mental health assessment in Young Offender Institutions; and if he will make a statement.

The Department has not made a formal assessment of the adequacy of mental health services or mental health assessment in Young Offender Institutions.

Children and Young People in Young Offender Institutions should have access to the same range and quality of health services, including mental health services, as the general public receives from the National Health Service.

Since April 2013, NHS England (now NHS England and NHS Improvement) has commissioned health services for all children and young people in Young Offender Institutions in England.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have a number of systems in place to enable it to assess the adequacy of healthcare provision. These include quarterly contract management meetings, Children and Young People Indicators of Performance returns, quality assurance visits, a quality surveillance process, and intelligence arising from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, Ofsted and Care Quality Commission reports. In addition, NHS England and NHS Improvement work in partnership with the relevant colleagues from Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service Youth Custody Service, Ministry of Justice, Department for Education and Public Health England in responding to any concerns.