PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Mental Health Services (16 December 2014)

This data is not collected centrally.

However, it is a priority for the Government that mental health services are available to victims of sexual assault and abuse as and when they need them.

The Government has invested over £400 million in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services, which provide trauma based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. In September the Government published Achieving Better Access to Mental Health Services by 2020, which contains the first waiting time standards for mental health and sets out a standard to ensure treatment within six weeks for 75% of adults referred to the IAPT Programme, and for 95% of people within 18 weeks.

The Government has invested £54 million in the Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP IAPT) programme over 2011-15/16, which is designed to improve access to evidence-based psychological therapies for children and young people.

The Government has also established the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Taskforce, which is looking at how to improve access to services that are more responsive to children and young people’s needs. The Taskforce have set up a Task and Finish group to consider how mental health services can better reflect the needs of vulnerable children and young people, including children and young people who have particular mental health needs as a result of childhood sexual exploitation or abuse.