Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Child Mental Health In-patient Provision: Derbyshire

Tuesday 1 March 2022 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Toby Perkins asked about the adequacy of child mental health in-patient provision in Derbyshire.
  • The Minister emphasized the importance of community support and treating patients close to home.
  • Stephen Jones's daughter had to travel 70 miles to access in-patient mental health facilities in Stoke.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Toby Perkins Lab Chesterfield
Mental Health Children & Families
Context

No specific incident mentioned, but concern about adequacy of child mental health services in Derbyshire.

Question

What assessment has been made of the adequacy of child mental health in-patient provision in Derbyshire?

Answer from Gillian Keegan

We want to ensure that more children and young people can access appropriate support in their community, and that those who require in-patient cases are treated as close to home as possible. The East Midlands Provider Collaborative is responsible for commissioning tasks for tier 4 in-patient children and adolescent mental health services, including for Derbyshire. It has implemented strategies to ensure the most efficient use of in-patient beds, including a review of the types of beds required by east midlands patients.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not provide specific assessment details on adequacy

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Q2 Toby Perkins Lab Chesterfield
Benefits & Welfare Mental Health
Context

A constituent's daughter required in-patient child mental health facilities but was sent to Stoke, resulting in a long commute and financial burden for the family.

Question

My constituent Stephen Jones wants what the Minister wants, but when his daughter required in-patient child mental health facilities she was forced to go to Stoke to receive them. He had a 70-mile journey every time he wanted to see her, which was obviously very expensive and also just impossible to do. It meant that his daughter's mental health got worse, because she felt that she had been abandoned by her own family, putting the whole family under pressure. In addition, if people do not receive universal credit, they get no support with the financial impact. Will the Minister tell us more about how we can ensure that children's mental health is not exacerbated by the inability to access services locally?

Answer from Gillian Keegan

The hon. Gentleman raises a very important point. Clearly, these are distressing enough times without having that commute and those travel arrangements on top of that, but sometimes the services are highly specialised. We are trying to get the right blend between access to highly specialised in-patient services and making sure that we increase community efforts. We have been working very hard to ensure that there are more community efforts, but we have also invested £10 million more in capital for more beds to make sure people can get treatment closer to home.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not provide concrete commitments on financial support or specific actions to address long commutes and lack of local services

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