Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to address the ‘treatment gap’ for young people who are referred to mental health services but rejected for not meeting eligibility criteria.

Under the NHS Long Term Plan, mental health services will continue to receive a growing share of the National Health Service budget, with funding to grow by at least £2.3 billion a year in real terms by 2023/24. Spending for children and young people’s mental health services will grow faster than the overall spend on mental health, which will itself be growing faster than the overall NHS budget.

The new investment announced in the Long Term Plan will mean that by 2023/24, an extra 345,000 children and young people aged 0-25 will receive mental health support via NHS-funded mental health services and school or college-based mental health support teams.