Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support the (a) mental and (b) physical health of new mothers during covid-19 restrictions on the number of people allowed to meet in a group from 14 September 2020.

Health visitors as leaders of the Healthy Child Programme work closely with children and families and are well placed to address issues relating to mental and physical health. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Health visiting services remained in contact with families either through face to face visits (with personal protective equipment) where clinically indicated, or virtually. Priority contacts included vulnerable families, providing support to perinatal mental health and physical health and wellbeing of mother and baby. Other key priority contacts were the antenatal and new baby scheduled contacts.

Public Health England worked with NHS England on guidance to reinstate the six to eight weeks contact and prioritised caseload contacts at the earliest opportunity. This can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/covid-19-prioritisation-within-community-health-services-with-annex_19-march-2020/

Support for parents is also available through Start4Life and the Information Service for Parents at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/start4life/pregnancy/

Support for professionals can be found through the Early Years High Impact Areas at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/commissioning-of-public-health-services-for-children