PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Mental Health Services: Schools (18 January 2017)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to changes in reported levels of children's self-harm set out in the Good Childhood Report 2016, published by the Children's Society in August 2016, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen collaboration with the Department for Education on improving the availability of school-based mental health services.

Asked by:
Judith Cummins (Labour)

The Department of Health has long worked closely with the Department for Education to improve the mental health of children and young people. Both Departments were involved in the production of the report Future in Mind as a result of which, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have engaged with a range of key partners, including schools, in the development of their Local Transformation Plans (LTPs) to address the full spectrum of mental health services.

This collaboration continues throughout the system, locally and nationally with the Department for Education and the Department of Health working closely together on pilots such as the Mental Health Services and Schools Link Pilots, which began in December 2015.

The Department of Health and the Department for Education are also working together on a joint Green Paper on Children and Young People’s mental health, due for publication later this year, which will include, but not be limited to, improving mental health services for 0-25 year olds across all settings, including in schools.

Answered by:
Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Conservative)
23 January 2017