Speeches

Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to ensure that the expansion of parenting programmes will be integrated with local transformation plans for children and young people’s mental health services.

Alistair Burt

The Government has accepted the recommendation in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published February 2016, to review the best way to ensure the expansion of the parenting programme announced by the Prime Minister in his Life Chances speech. The Department for Work and Pensions is currently considering how to implement this and further thought will be given as to how it fits with local plans for the transformation of children’s and young people’s mental health services.

It is for local areas to consider and commission services based on the needs of their local population. In general, family support is the responsibility of local government. Local Transformation Plans produced in each area of the country set out how they plan to meet the full spectrum of needs of children and young people with mental health problems, and what services should be put in place to address these. The Children and Young Peoples Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Programme, which is being expanded to cover the whole country and extended into other clinical areas including meeting the needs of children aged 0-5, already includes parenting programmes for children with conduct disorders.