Urgent Question on Mental Health Services House of Commons

Order. Urgent question, Barbara

Keeley.

To ask the Secretary of

State for Health and social care to

make a statement on the Care Quality

Commission's review of children and

young people's mental-health

services.

Minister at Steve Brine.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I

can tell you Mr Speaker, tomorrow

they can quality commission

published their report, if review of

children and young people's mental

health services. It is entitled, are

we listening? Yes, we are, Mr

Speaker. This is the second piece of

work to look at this area of

services. Finding examples of good

and innovative practice and

dedicated people. We thank everyone

of them working in every part of the

system. A number areas of strong

practice making sure that patients

and their families are involved in

planning care and concerns about the

join up. Let me thank the CQC and

the doctor and his team for their

work. The Government has already

committed to making an additional

£1.4 billion improvement or health

services and deliver on the

commitments in future in mind and

the review of mental health. CQC

welcomes this progress in their

report, I know it. Spend is reaching

the front line. It is an issue I

note the back honourable lady and

members have concerns about. By

2021, we have committed to ensuring

70,000 more young people have access

to high-quality mental health care

when the need it. We know there are

so much more to do, Mr Speaker. As

clambered up, the National health

director for NHS England said in

response to this report, Cannes

services are now improving, but

historic underfunding, legacy

understaffing and rapidly growing

need as we are seeing across the

service. December, jointly with the

Department for Education, we

published this green paper, which

responds to a number of problems

raised by the CQC in this report and

sets out a range of proposals to

strengthen the way schools and

specialist NHS mental health

services work together and to reduce

the amount of time that children and

young people have to wait to access

specialist help. These proposals are

backed by an additional £300 million

of funding. We have carried out an

extensive face-to-face consultation

and received a very high level of

responses to our online consultation

and we thank everyone from that. We

will respond to that this summer.

The report also calls for the

Secretary of State to use the

interministerial group on mental

health to guarantee greater

collaboration across Government

departments and prioritising mental

health. We agree, this

recommendation is already in hand,

Mr Speaker. The IMG has already

contributed to the development of

the Queen paper and will continue to

provide leadership on the issues

that this report raises. The CQC

also recommend that everyone works,

volunteers and cares for young

people is trained in mental health

awareness. We rolling out training

to every secondary school and have

committed to rolling out mental

health awareness training to all

primary schools by 2022. This

Government, Mr Speaker, and these

ministers remain committed wholly to

making mental health everybody's

business and building good mental

health for our children and young

people stop all.

Barbara Keeley.

This is the recent piece of evidence

revealing systematic failings in our

mental health services. Similar

reports in the last few weeks call

into question the Government's

claims to have made mental health

and equal priority to physical

health. We see evidence of services

actively putting up barriers to

treatment, resulting in children and

young people having to reach crisis

point before being able to get

access to the right treatment.

Children are suffering because of

these high eligibility thresholds.

Mr Speaker, we know that 50% of

mental health problems develop

before the age of 14, and 75%

develop before the age of 18. Does

the Minister recognise that imposing

high eligibility thresholds means

children and young people are

treated only when their condition

becomes more serious? And these high

thresholds or even pointing is about

prompting GPs to tell children to

pretend that their mental health is

worse than it is. Will the Minister

agree to look into referral criteria

as a matter of urgency to ensure

that young people are getting proper

treatment at the right time? Now,

the report linked excessively high

eligibility thresholds and

reductions in access with funding

reductions and not enough capacity

for services to respond to local

needs. Whatever the Minister says,

clearly not enough money is reaching

the front line. Can the Minister

tell us how he plans to address

this? Now, this report, like the

CQC's recent report into

rehabilitation services, raises

questions about out of area

placements, and we know that these

are barrier to recovery. Can the

Minister tell the House what action

is being taken to increase the

number of inpatient beds locally.

Finally, the transition from

children's to adult mental health

services at 18 is also a barrier to

accessing care. What is the Minister

going to do to address the clear

plop some problem is highly dead in

this report and others associated

with the ridge and transition age 18

from child and adolescent services

to adult mental health services.

Minister.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. She

rightly raises spend reaching the

front line. I said in my opening

remarks it is doing so. She asked

what evidence there is that. Well,

last year we saw a 20% increase on

Clinical Commissioning Group for

young -- children and young people's

mental health services. It rose to

£690 million in 2016-17. The broad

issues raised in the response...

Mean, I mean, I said that we have

made up to £1.4 billion available

over a five-year period to support

the transition of these services and

an extra £300 million. I would want

to mention waiting times and

referral routes in that. On waiting

times, we are the first Government

two and reduce waiting times

standards. And -- to introduce

waiting times standards. Both either

our meeting or are on track to meet

their target, we will be piloting a

four-week waiting time for

specialist mental health services as

outlined in the recent green paper.

We are considering their report and

the responses to that. Our green

paper proposals for the senior

designated mental health support

teams, the new workforce, which are

based on the findings of the DfE's

schooling pilot, they aim to improve

the join up with specialist services

and result John Morra appropriate

referrals. She is shaking her head,

but I can only tell her the facts.

-- result in more appropriate

referrals. The workforce recognise

new ways of working as a cornerstone

of delivering these improvements. We

will be working with our partners to

continue the expansion

of the newly created roles in mental

health services and considering the

creation of new roles, such as early

intervention workers, focusing on

child well-being as part of the

psychiatrist led team. That was my

cue, Mr Speaker, thank you.

Order,

many honourable members and right

honourable members are seeking to

catch my icon but can I remind you

that there is the business questions

followed by an important statement

by the Home Secretary, thereafter,

the debate on International Women's

Day is heavily subscribed. There is

a premium upon brevity and I do want

to move on, whether we've reached

everybody and incorporated everybody

or not, no later than 11am. Single

sentence questions are much to be

provoked. Fiona Bruce.

Can I commend

promoting the emotionally healthy

schools Project, which is engaging

not just children who have

challenges but also their families.

Would the Minister agree that

helping children with mental health

charities need to involve wherever

practical by families, family

relationships, and they're into

parental relationships as

recommended by the early

intervention foundation?

As ever, my

honourable friend makes the point

about families. I mean, I said we

are already rolling out the mental

health training for every secondary

school, and of course that is

important and we are committed to

rolling out mental health awareness

training to primary schools by 2022.

Yes, to coin a phrase, it takes a

Village. It is about the state, and

the schools are part of that. It is

also about the third sector, who

have an important role to play. And

it absolutely is about the love and

support and the Christian embrace of

families.

This is a very important

issue, especially given that half of

mental health problems are

established by the age of 14, it is

shocking that some children are only

receiving assistance after

attempting suicide. I note that

Claire Murdoch, the National mental

health director for NHS in wind has

dated, child and adolescent mental

health services are suffering of a

legacy of underfunding and

understaffing. This report is surely

an example of the latest reports in

recent years demonstrating the

impact of this Government austerity

distributed agenda to public

services. By comparison in Scotland,

which have the UK's first ever

dedicated mental Health Minister, we

have seen staff at full Scotland's

mental health care services at a

record high, a 79% increase. Surely

as part of this response to these

findings, the Minister may wish to

look at actions being taken in

Scotland and learn from those.

We

always look at the actions that are

being taken in Scotland and all the

devolved administrations. He's quite

right to have touched on prevention,

the first point that he made. The

green paper is focused on providing

significant support for schools to

develop the work they already do on

prevention and early intervention. I

just would say that in these

exchanges, Mr Speaker, the report

today says about the many good

things that are going on. As he's

already said, some of the things we

have already taken forward with the

green paper. While we are taking

this about, remember that this is

about the health, I'll leave it at

that, it's about the health of the

young people that we are present in

England.

Jeremy Quin.

The CQC has

recommended that Ofsted should be

charged with looking at what schools

are doing to support mental health,

is that something that the Minister

will take up with his colleagues in

the DfE?

I'm sure my colleague, the

Parliamentary undersecretary for

mental health, will be taking that

up as she considers responses to the

green paper, but I thank him for

raising that.

What action will the

Minister take with increasing

numbers of university students

having mental health problems to

ensure better joined up care and

better communication between home

and university GPs and student

welfare services?

Is a former

Student Union president, I think

that's a very, very good point. One

of the key proposals in the green

paper is about the new mental health

support teams. I think they will be

very important in that, she is right

that they should work across higher

education as well is the earlier

forms of education.

In the next few

weeks, work will begin on

construction of the new mental

health residential unit for young

people in Cornwall, something that

is long overdue and much

anticipated, a clear sign that this

Government is investing in mental

health for young people, but we

continue to have a problem with our

CCG in delivering front-line

services even though the Government

are providing more money. What steps

can ministers take to ensure that

CCGs allocate the money provided to

those services?

I don't know the

specific example that he raises but

he may wish to take that up with my

colleague, the Prime Minister is

about -- parliamentary

undersecretary. There is an increase

in CCG mental spend between 15-16

and 16-17, we have all been

frustrated about spend reaching the

front line and made it clear that we

expect it to do so. I'm pleased that

we see progress in the right

directory.

Norman Lamb.

Thank you,

Mr Speaker. These damning findings

come three years after we secured

£1.25 billion extra over a five-year

period. We know that that money has

fallen short, well shot, of what was

committed to three years ago. Will

the Minister absolutely commit to

make good the shortfall of money

getting through to children's mental

health services?

I think our former

-- I thank our former ministerial

colleagues about. We have not

exactly been shy in investing in

this area, both when he was a

Minister in the department and now.

We have made £1.4 billion available

to support the transformation of

services and the extra £300 million.

When he says this damning report,

let's remember, this is a report

that we commission. We don't hide

from these things. The last time

that I responded was about a CQC

report into social care, we mustn't

not hide and we don't want to bury

our heads in the sand. We've got to

recognise and built on the example

is of good person centred care that

are taking place in our country at

the moment. That's why we are

putting the money and behind it, and

he's right to raise it to.

Luke

Graham.

Thanks, Mr Speaker. I

welcome the funding that is coming

from my honourable friend. I ask him

what he is doing to support the

devolved nations in this area such

as Scotland, where adolescent mental

health waiting times targets were

actually missed? We want to make

sure that no British child is left

behind, no matter what part of the

UK they live in.

Excellent point. I

will make sure that my colleague is

talking, as I know she is, to the

devolved administrations as she

continued as the responses, and I'm

sure she will include the responses

from them in the green paper.

And the review found that children

are waiting until 18 months to

receive treatment for their mental

health conditions. Then Lewisham,

the budget is being cut by 5% by the

government. The Green paper will not

help children currently waiting,

what is the government going to do

address this?

We will put the money

in publishing sensible strategy in a

green paper, consider the responses

and take it forward backed by the

investment that we think we need in

order to deliver that strategy and

that will be dissimilar Lewisham

added will in Winchester. I'm sure

both sides of the House will welcome

the commitment to 21,000 more people

in mental service provision by 2021.

Can the Minister assure me that only

two more children accessing mental

health services within the week

target? We talked about the four

week pilot target in the testing

idea, one of the key pillars in the

Green paper and we hope to pilot

this in order to test the impact of

the additional investment we are

making in reducing waiting time and

assessing the benefits and

challenges and to provide

information on to how the waiting

time standard should be adapted so

there are no perverse assessments

are own thresholds.

The Minister has

described the provision and it will

not be recognised by anyone

providing using services, does he

think cutting the funding for the

Northwest partnership every year

since 2011 has led to improve

services for young people in St

Helens? I don't know about the issue

in St Helens, so let me look into

that and as my colleague to do so

and I will get her to write to him.

I very much welcome the government's

committing mental health workers

throughout England's schools, can my

honourable friend give the House and

update on the timely roll-out of

that?

One of the things that we will

be considering as part of the Green

paper is the four week pilot as I

said. We do want to see these mental

health people in schools and us as

we can get an exact timetable on

things in Crawley as well as the

rest, I'm sure my colleague will do

so. 75% of mental health problems

start before the age of 18 but less

than 10% are funding goes to young

people. What can the Minister did to

prioritise more funding for these

services. Went back as I have said,

the overall budget is the money we

have promised around the green paper

but he is absolutely right, with the

green paper, it has at its heart,

focuses on prevention and

significant support through schools

early years and through schools and

as a honourable Lady mentioned

through higher education to prevent

issues from snowballing in the first

place and is absolutely right.

With

the understanding of mental health

services and the recent health

committee Select Committee report on

the nursing shortage, does he accept

that the decision to remove nursing

bursaries, which has vertically

affected a number of students coming

forward a train to be mental health

nurses was a mistake by his

government? I don't accept that was

a mistake, I think we need to

increase the number of people coming

into nursing and we were turning

away far too many people who wanted

to come into nursing the workforce

is always a huge challenge across

the NHS in my area and primary care

and secondary care and in mental

health, which is why the secular

state said we will be creating

21,000 new posts by 2021 to support

one of the biggest expansion in the

mental health services in Europe.

The Minister will know from his own

background that primary care doesn't

always have the expertise in mental

health that we need. How will the

guarantee we will now see in every

GP surgery the capacity to deliver

excellence.

Gets a good point which

is very much in the centre of my

portfolio. I would say that GPs are

generalists and as the Minister for

cancer there is criticism about

their specialism in that and GPs

can't be specialists by the very

nature by what they do. The mental

health support team at the heart of

the green paper are a key part of

that and we would expect to see them

working closely with GPs and the

Royal College to upscale our general

practitioners as part of the MDT to

help young people when the need that

help.

I will be meeting with the

chief executive of my local mental

health trust tomorrow because we are

desperately worried about the mental

health budget provision for young

people in your. Not only are we

short on staff but also resources.

It takes time to treat mental health

staff, so what of the government

going to do in the interim to ensure

we have staff in the service?

I hope

when she meets in her constituency

tomorrow she will recognise the good

work that is going on and the number

of people that are going over and

above to deliver the services to

children and young people I will

also said at one of her

responsibilities as a member of

Parliament as ministers as well to

see that the STPs in her area

collaborating with all the different

organisations in her constituency is

to make sure its original health and

social care services are joined up

with schools, police, probation

services and mental health services

because it is ultimately one NHS.

Will the Minister listen carefully

to the voice of parents. In my

experience as chair of the autism

commission, what parents want,

everything think there's something

wrong with their child whether it is

mental health or autism, they want

early diagnosis and treatment. That

is what they want and we want the

standard like we have in Sweden.

I'm

aware of the honourable gentleman

in

the Westminster commission for

autism and has a big event coming up

which I'm hoping to come to in the

next few weeks. That's why the CDC

report highlighted the government

proposals such as establishing a

dedicated mental health support

team. I completely agree with him.

Mr Speaker, phase one of the sea QC

review noted that there were an

acceptable -- unacceptable

variations in quality, so he can

quality be more consistently

provided across the country?

An

excellent point, the NHS is very

good at sharing best practice, the

challenge comes at implementing it

and the report rightly says there

are very good examples of good care

going at on across the country and

the challenge is to make sure that

is ruled out everywhere. What I

would say the answer to doing that

is to focus on the workforce, to

focus on the investment and to focus

that we have the strategy, the

agreed strategy in place that takes

the sector with it in order to do

that.