Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure (a) equality of access to and (b) quality of healthcare provision across the (i) women’s and (ii) Children and Young People's estate.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To improve health and social care outcomes for all women in prison and upon their release, NHS England and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service commissioned the National Women’s Prisons Health and Social Care Review. The review’s report identified a number of recommendations to improve equity and quality of care to meet the specific needs of women in prison.
A wide range of actions to implement these recommendations are taking place at establishment, regional, and national levels, backed by £21 million across three years, and overseen by the Joint Women's Prison Health and Social Care Review Implementation Programme Board.
The health issues facing those detained in the children and young people secure estate are systematically kept under review through regular health and wellbeing needs assessments and the Healthcare Standards for Children and Young People in Secure Settings.
The Framework for Integrated Care operates in the children and young people secure estate as a coherent structure for a comprehensive, trauma-informed system of care that focuses on individualised care rather than on separate labels, diagnoses, or interventions.
NHS England has also commissioned the three-year Benchmarking Project, aimed at assessing and supporting the implementation of the Healthcare Standards for Children and Young People in Secure Settings.
Further work is underway to identify where the existing pathway in the children and young people secure estate requires enhancement to better support the placement, management, and care of all girls in secure settings. This work will be informed by evidence and best practice and will be developed with experts to test the most appropriate model of care.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2025 to Question 55468 on Gender Dysphoria: Health Services, what his planned timetable is for ensuring the delivery of a gender clinic in each region by 2026.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has established NHS Children and Young People's Gender Services in the North-West, South-West, and London regions, in 2024. A fourth service is planned to open in the East England region in January 2026, following a process of mobilisation over 2025. Work remains ongoing to establish commissioned services that provide a pathway for children and young people with gender incongruence in the other regions by March 2027, on a phased basis.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to (a) review and (b) update the guidance entitled Children and young people’s continuing care national framework, published on 22 January 2016.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Framework for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care, published by the then Department of Health, now the Department of Health and Social Care, in January 2016 is intended to support good practice locally, providing guidance for integrated care boards (ICBs) and local authorities on the process for assessing, deciding, and agreeing packages of care for children and young people.
There are currently no plans to review or update the Children and Young People's Continuing Care National Framework.
ICBs are responsible for the provision and commissioning of services to meet the needs of their local populations. NHS England supports ICBs to implement the National Framework for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care, and it has now started to collect Children and Young People’s Continuing Care activity data as part of the All-age Continuing Care Patient Level Dataset which launched on 1 April 2025, and which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Lizzi Collinge (Labour - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
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 improve access to (a) gender identity and (b) trans healthcare services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has established NHS Children and Young People's Gender Services in London, the North-West, and the South-West in 2024. A fourth service is planned to open in the East England region in January 2026. Work remains ongoing to establish commissioned services that provide a pathway for children and young people with gender incongruence in the other regions, by March 2027, on a phased basis.
NHS England has increased the number of adult Gender Dysphoria Clinics in England from seven to 12, with the rollout of five new adult gender pilot clinics since July 2020. The rollout of these clinics is helping to tackle long waiting times.
NHS England is currently carrying out a review of adult gender services, with the aim of producing an updated service specification. The review, which is chaired by Dr David Levy, will examine the model of care and operating procedures of each service, and will carefully consider experiences, feedback, and outcomes from clinicians and patients.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
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 ensure children presenting with obsessive compulsive disorder receive timely assessment and treatment within CAMHS.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are transforming children and young people's mental health services to improve access to treatment for children with mental health needs, including obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). In the 12 months to July 2025, over 846,000 children and young people accessed National Health Service funded mental health support, a 65% increase compared to 2019. We are also expanding Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) in schools to reach full national coverage by 2029/30, and May 2025 data shows that over five million, or 52% of, pupils and learners are covered by an MHST. Systems should ensure that there are mental health services accessible to all children and young people with a mental health need in their area, including those with OCD.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for Health and Social Care on 4 September (HC70174), what is the meaning of "in due course" for confirming the funding arrangements for children and young people's hospices in 2026–27.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Minister of State for Care is currently having discussions with NHS England and Department officials about the funding arrangements for children and young people’s hospices in 2026/27. We hope to be able to provide further communication on this later in the year.
Asked by: Calum Miller (Liberal Democrat - Bicester and Woodstock)
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 ensure that parliamentary scrutiny of child and young people's mental health policy is supported by transparent ministerial accountability in the House of Commons.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers in the Department take their accountability to Parliament very seriously and we welcome the role of hon. Members in championing the interests of children, young people and their families, raising awareness of the issues affecting their mental health and in scrutinising our policies and holding the Government to account.
Parliamentary scrutiny of the Government’s policies on children and young people's mental health is evidenced through our written ministerial statements, including the statement made on 27 March 2025 on Mental Health: Expected Spend for 2025-26, our contributions to debates such as the one on Eating Disorder Awareness that took place on 1 April 2025, in our evidence to committees, our responses to Members’ oral and written questions and through the House’s scrutiny of the Mental Health Bill during its first and second readings and its recently completed committee stage.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department expects NHS England to publish updated guidance on children's and young people's eating disorders; and which third party bodies were consulted on updates to that guidance.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is in the process of refreshing its guidance on children and young people's eating disorders, which includes increasing the focus on early identification and intervention across the care pathway, including in settings such as schools and primary care. The guidance focuses on community provision of care, whilst ensuring swift access to specialist support as soon as an eating disorder is suspected. It is not yet known when the updated guidance will be published.
The updated guidance is being produced in partnership with a task and finish group comprising of internal and external clinical, academic, and policy stakeholders, including from royal colleges, regional and system children and young people and eating disorder leads and children, young people, and parents with lived experience.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to include policies on supporting mental healthcare as part of the 10 year health plan in (a) West Dorset constituency and (b) other rural areas.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan will deliver more care locally, including in rural areas like West Dorset, supporting people to stay healthier including with their mental health.
A neighbourhood mental health model, providing open access to specialist services and holistic support in community locations 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is already being piloted in six locations and we plan to go further. There will be 85 new dedicated mental health emergency departments and people will get better access to mental health support directly through the NHS App.
We will also expand mental health support teams to cover all schools in England by 2029/30 and new Young Future Hubs will provide additional support for children and young people's mental health.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England plans to remove the minimum age of referral to specialist gender identity clinics.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 7 August 2024, NHS England published a new service specification that describes the pathway onto the waiting list for NHS Children and Young People's Gender Services in line with the recommendations of the Cass Review. The service specification does not describe a minimum age, recognising that there may be underlying reasons for children questioning their gender and that accessing mental health and counselling services would be beneficial. Denying parents and children access to professional support risks driving people to unregulated online sources.