Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support young people in danger of developing an eating disorder.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We know that eating disorders are complicated mental health conditions caused by a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and environmental factors. It is unclear exactly why someone develops an eating disorder. Since 2016, investment in children and young people's community eating disorder services has risen every year, with an extra £54 million per year from 2022/23. This extra funding will enhance the capacity of community eating disorder teams across the country.
The long-term aim set out within the NHS Long-Term Plan is to improve community support for serious mental illnesses, such as eating disorders, to avoid the need for an inpatient admission where possible. Investment in Community Eating Disorder teams for children and young people will support prevention, early identification and intervention, offering swift access to treatment. To accelerate the provision of early intervention eating disorder services for young adults, in 2019/20 NHS England funded 18 sites to implement “First Episode Rapid Early intervention for Eating Disorders” model for 16 to 25 year olds. The model is now being adopted more widely.
We are also focussed on delivering commitments made in the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health green paper to provide early intervention by accelerating the roll out of Mental Health Support Teams. This will support school staff to identify children and young people at risk off or showing signs of mental health difficulties including potential early signs of an eating disorder.
There are currently 287 mental health support teams in place in around 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression, and other common mental health issue.
TARGET DATE 23/06/2023
Mental health support teams now cover 26% of pupils, a year earlier than originally planned and this will increase to 399 teams, covering around 35% of pupils, by April 2023 with over 500 planned to be up and running by 2024.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to improve (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment of eating disorders.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Under the NHS Long Term Plan, we will invest almost £1 billion extra in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness by 2023/24. This will give 370,000 adults with severe mental illnesses, including eating disorders, greater choice and control over their care and support them to live well in their communities. As part of this we are expanding community eating disorder services capacity, including crisis care and intensive home treatment.
Since 2016, investment in children and young people's community eating disorder services has risen every year, with an extra £54 million per year from 2022/23. This extra funding will enhance the capacity of community eating disorder teams across the country.
NHS England is refreshing guidance on children and young people's eating disorders, including to increase the focus on early identification and intervention. Updated guidance will highlight the importance of improved integration between dedicated community eating disorder services, wider children and young people's mental health services, schools, colleges and primary care to improve awareness, provide expert advice and improve support for children and young people presenting with problems with eating, whilst ensuring swift access to specialist support as soon as an eating disorder is suspected.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment the Government has made of the impact of covid-19 on the (a) health and (b) education of this year's cohort of (i) GCSE and (ii) A Level students; and what steps the Government is taking to help ensure that this year's (A) GCSE and (B) A-level exams reflect that impact.
Answered by Nick Gibb
GCSE, AS and A level exams in England have largely returned to pre-pandemic arrangements this summer. These arrangements are the best and fairest way of assessing what students know and can do. There will be some support in place for pupils in recognition that they have experienced some disruption to their education as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ofqual has confirmed a return to pre-pandemic grading in 2023, but with protection in place for GCSE and A level cohorts because of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Where national performance is found to be lower than it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, senior examiners will make allowances when setting grade boundaries.
GCSE mathematics, physics and combined science students have been provided with formulae and equation sheets, to support them in these subjects. The GCSE, AS and A level exam timetable has been designed to space out exam papers in the same subject. This will give pupils more time to revise between papers than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the almost £5 billion made available to support children and young people to catch up on missed education, we are providing £1 billion through the Recovery Premium in 2022/23 and 2023/24 to allow schools to continue to focus on evidence based approaches and activities that support pupils, including those in exam cohorts. The Department has nearly doubled the premium rate for mainstream secondary schools to £276 per eligible pupil, reflecting evidence of need.
The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is central to the Department’s £5 billion education recovery programme, which includes up to £1.5 billion on tutoring. This support is especially focused on helping the most disadvantaged, vulnerable or those with the least time left in education, wherever they live. The NTP makes available subsidised tutoring to boost progress of pupils who most need to catch up on education lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate academic progress. Since November 2020 over 3 million courses have been started through the programme.
The Department has set the subsidy rate for the NTP for the next academic year at 50%. This change is in response to schools’ concerns over previously announced funding arrangements, which included a 25% subsidy rate. The 50% subsidy rate announced on 23 May means that schools now need to contribute less of their core funding to provide tutoring.
From September 2022, full time students in 16 to 19 education will be entitled to an average of 40 additional hours of education. A proportionate increase in hours will be offered to part time students. This is to ensure those with the least time left in education catch up on the vital education they missed during the pandemic. The Department has allocated over £800 million until 2024/25 to fund this.
Regarding student health, the Department publishes annual State of the Nation reports, which draw together the best available published evidence on the wellbeing of children and young people aged 5 to 24. The findings from this series of reports inform work across government to support young people's wellbeing. The most recent report was published in February 2023 and can be accessed at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1134596/State_of_the_nation_2022_-_children_and_young_people_s_wellbeing.pdf.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of providing free after-school activities at schools.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The department has not made a recent assessment of the potential merits of providing free after-school activities at schools.
The department is committed to ensuring young people have access to high quality extracurricular opportunities. The department knows these are an important part of a rich educational experience and can bring wider benefits to young people's mental health, confidence, social skills and general wellbeing. We also recognise the important role wraparound childcare, including after-school clubs, has in enabling parents to work.
Schools are best placed to understand and meet the needs of their pupils and so have flexibility to decide what range of extracurricular activities to offer and how to resource these activities. Both pupil premium and recovery premium can be used to fund enrichment activities. In March 2022, the department updated its guidance to make this clear to schools. Schools can choose how they wish to use this funding in line with a menu of approaches.
Working families can also get help with childcare costs through Tax Free Childcare (TFC) worth up to £2,000 per year for children aged up to 11, or £4,000 per year for children aged up to 17 with disabilities, and the childcare element of Universal Credit (UC) for children up to age 16. Parents and carers can benefit from TFC and UC for the cost of after-school clubs, but the providers must be on the Ofsted Early Years or Childcare registers.
The department also supports a range of initiatives to expand access to high quality extracurricular activities, for example investing over £200 million a year in our Holiday Activities and Food programme and working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to offer the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award to all state secondary schools in England. The government is also investing £289 million in a new childcare ‘pathfinder’ scheme to support local authorities to work with primary schools and private providers to set up and deliver wraparound childcare before and after school.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to establish a national access and waiting time standard for children and young people's mental health services, and if so, when; and what plans they have to establish a pathway for young people transitioning from children and young people's mental health services to adult mental health services, in order to collect detailed and accurate numerical data.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has consulted on the potential to introduce five new waiting time standards as part of its clinically-led review of National Health Service access standards, including that children, young people and their families presenting to community-based mental health services should start to receive care within four weeks from referral. As a first step, NHS England has shared and promoted guidance with its local system partners to consistently report waiting times to support the development of a baseline position. NHS England is developing implementation proposals for consideration by Government.
We are supporting children and young people by expanding mental health services through the NHS Long Term Plan. The Plan sets out the intention to develop a new approach to young adult mental health services for people aged between 18 and 25 years old which will support the transition to adulthood. The Plan will extend current service models to create a comprehensive offer for ages between zero and 25 years old that offers person centered and age appropriate care for mental health needs.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support people with eating disorders.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Under the NHS Long Term Plan, the Government has earmarked additional funding to bolster existing mental health services, including eating disorder services, until 2024. Since 2016, investment in children and young people's community eating disorder services has risen every year, with an extra £54 million per year from 2023/24. This extra funding continues to enhance the capacity of community eating disorder teams across the country. We expect integrated care boards to continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard so that investment in mental health services increases in line with their overall increase in allocation for that year.
NHS England continues to work with system leaders and regions and to ask that areas prioritise service delivery and investment to meet the needs of these vulnerable young people to help ensure funding flows to these services as intended. To support this, NHS England is refreshing guidance on children and young people's eating disorders, including to increase the focus on early identification and intervention. Updated guidance will highlight the importance of improved integration between dedicated community eating disorder services, wider children and young people's mental health services, schools, colleges and primary care to improve awareness, provide expert advice and improve support for children and young people presenting with problems with eating, whilst ensuring swift access to specialist support as soon as an eating disorder is suspected.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their Women’s Health Strategy for England, published on 30 August 2022, what steps they are taking to address the high rates of poor mental health amongst girls and young women.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Plan commits an additional £2.3 billion a year for mental health services in England by 2023/24, supporting an additional two million people, including girls and young women, to get the National Health Service-funded mental health support that they need.
We also continue to make progress on rolling out mental health support teams to schools and colleges, with 287 in place in over 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing common mental health issues. The number of teams is expected shortly to have increased to 399.
We know that girls and women are more likely to experience an eating disorder, so as part of the NHS Long Term Plan investment, we are putting an extra £1 billion into community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness by 2023/24. This will give 370,000 adults and older adults with severe mental illnesses, including eating disorders, greater choice and control over their care and will support them to live well in their communities.
Since 2016, extra funding is going into children and young people's community eating disorder services every year, with £54 million per year from 2022/23. This extra funding will enhance the capacity of community eating disorder teams across the country.
The NHS Long Term Plan also includes measures to improve safety, quality and continuity of care and a commitment for a further 24,000 women to be able to access specialist perinatal mental health care by 2023/24. This care will also be available from preconception to 24 months after birth, which will provide an extra year of support. This expansion includes 33 new Maternal Mental Health Services, which bring together psychological therapy, maternity services and reproductive health for women who have mental health needs following trauma or loss related to their maternity experience. These will be available across England by March 2024.
As outlined in the Women’s Health Strategy, women are one of our priority groups when promoting our Every Mind Matters resource, which includes content to support issues affecting women’s mental health, including life changes such as pregnancy.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the CAMHS four week referral and one week urgent referral targets are met across the country.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
For children and young people, we have set up the first standard to improve access to eating disorder services for children and young people. This states that 95% of children with an eating disorder will receive treatment within one week for urgent cases and four weeks for routine cases. Prior to the pandemic, significant progress had been made towards achieving the 95% access target.
Since the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in demand and more children and young people with an eating disorder are accessing support than ever before. The number of children and young people entering urgent treatment for an eating disorder has increased by 11% to 2,632 in 2021/2022 compared to 2020/2021. The year before this it increased by 73% from 1,373 to 2,372 children and young people.
This increase in demand has affected performance against the waiting timing standard and the latest figures show that this is not currently being met. We remain committed to delivering this waiting time standard. NHS England continues to work with system leaders and regions and to ask that areas prioritise service delivery and investment to meet the needs of these vulnerable young people.
Since 2016, extra funding is going into children and young people's community eating disorder services every year, with £53 million per year from 2021/2022, rising to £54 million in 2023/2024. This extra funding will enhance the capacity of the 70 new or improved community eating disorder teams covering the whole of the country.
We acknowledge that more support is still needed, which is why we are also rolling out mental health support teams as fast as we can, ahead of plan, as well as establishing 24/7 crisis lines.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the statement by the Royal College of Psychiatrists on 2 March that the NHS is "facing an eating disorders crisis", due to a 51 per cent increase in children and young people requiring specialist services; and what steps they will take to ensure that there is no regional disparity in the services offered.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the NHS Long Term Plan, the Government has earmarked additional funding to bolster existing mental health services, including eating disorder services, until 2023/24. Since 2016, investment in children and young people's community eating disorder services has risen every year, with an extra £54 million per year from 2023/24. This extra funding continues to enhance the capacity of community eating disorder teams across the country. We expect integrated care boards to continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard so that investment in mental health services increases in line with their overall increase in allocation for that year.
NHS England continues to work with system leaders and regions and to ask that areas prioritise service delivery and investment to meet the needs of these vulnerable young people to help ensure funding flows to these services as intended. To support this, NHS England is refreshing guidance on children and young people's eating disorders, including to increase the focus on early identification and intervention. The updated guidance will highlight the importance of improved integration between dedicated community eating disorder services, wider children and young people's mental health services, schools, colleges, and primary care to improve awareness, provide expert advice and improve support for children and young people presenting with problems with eating, whilst ensuring swift access to specialist support as soon as an eating disorder is suspected.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the statement made in her Department's Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan: Right Support, Right Place, Right Time report, published in March 2023, that the Government intends to replace the NASENCo with a mandatory leadership level SENCo NPQ for SENCos that do not hold the qualification, what steps she has taken to assess the strength of the business case for that policy; on what evidence her Department based its assessment of the likely impact of that change on the ability of SENCos to identify (a) children and young people's needs and (b) appropriate interventions in a timely way; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the planned change on the number of children and young people who will require (i) specialist support and (ii) Education and Health Care Plans.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The introduction of a new leadership level SENCO National Professional Qualification (NPQ) to replace the existing mandatory qualification will play a key role in achieving the ambitions of the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, by ensuring that special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) consistently receive high-quality, evidence-based training. Research conducted by University of Plymouth highlighted that, while there is value in SENCOs completing the National Award for SEN Coordination (NASENCO), there are certain weaknesses with the current qualification, including an overemphasis on theory and academic assignment writing.
In the SEND and AP Green Paper, published in March 2022, the department consulted on the introduction of the SENCO NPQ to address these issues. There was general support for the proposal, with 48% (1,278) of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing with this change and only 20% (529) disagreeing or strongly disagreeing.
NPQs are designed to provide training for education professionals at all levels, using the best available evidence to transform their practice and deliver improved outcomes for children and young people. In the interim evaluation of the 2021 reformed NPQs, early feedback from participants was that the ultimate beneficiaries of the NPQs will be pupils, who they believe will receive higher-quality teaching that results in better outcomes for pupils.