Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will ensure the needs of children who have been abused are considered when allocating the £1.25 billion for Child and Adolescent Mental Health services over the next five years.

Alistair Burt

This Government is committed to delivering the vision set out in Future in Mind and is driving forward the transformation of children and young people’s mental health services to improve access and make services more widely available across the country so that, where possible, children can access high-quality support locally.

This transformation programme, backed by additional investment of £1.25 billion and an extra £150 million to improve eating disorders, allocated over the next five years, will deliver a step change in the way children and young people’s mental health services are commissioned and delivered.

All clinical commissioning groups, working closely with their partners, were asked to develop and submit Local Transformation Plans (LTPs) to transform their local offer for children and young people’s mental health. Plans must cover the whole spectrum of services from prevention to intervention for emerging or existing mental health problems and address the full spectrum of need, including children who have been abused and/or exploited. LTPs should also demonstrate that services have been designed with children and young people and their families, and meet the needs of their local population of children.

LTPs covering all local areas were submitted in October 2015 and are currently being assured by NHS England’s regional teams.