Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to mental health services in Sefton Central constituency.

In September we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will increase access to National Health Service mental health services, including in Sefton Central. Ensuring easier access to general practice will expand this route to access mental health services.

Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand NHS mental health services in England, including in Sefton Central. We will invest approximately £1 billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness by 2023/24.