Children's Mental Health Services: Lincolnshire

Opened the debate

I am concerned about the mental health challenges faced by children in Lincolnshire. Families are distressed when their children suffer from mental ill health, seeking support but often finding it inadequate due to staffing shortages and limited after-hours care. The early help strategy is promising but there is a need for more school-based interventions and mandatory training for medical professionals. Staffing issues hinder service expansion, with the rural nature of Lincolnshire making recruitment difficult.

Government Response

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Grantham and Stamford for securing this debate and for the way he continues to champion children's mental health services. The experience that they brought to me has helped to influence the work we are doing. Lincolnshire's children and young people's mental health services have always been rated as outstanding by the Care Quality Commission, with pre-pandemic wait times of 4.4 weeks for child and adolescent mental health services assessments and a reduction in referrals to CAMHS by 5% due to Healthy Minds Lincolnshire early-intervention service. However, the pandemic has increased referrals by 15.7%, despite Lincolnshire's strong performance compared with other parts of the country. The loss of workers is high, and while we are recruiting more staff, training them takes time. Funding for CAMHS in Lincolnshire has increased by £1.2 million this financial year to reduce waiting times. Nationally, 67% of children assessed were done so within six weeks by September last year, with early-intervention services bringing the average down to four weeks. The Government plans to deliver 399 mental health support teams in schools and colleges, provide £79 million for capacity building in children's mental health services, expand access to eating disorder services, and reform the Mental Health Act 1983 to make services more community-led. We also aim to publish a national suicide prevention strategy focusing on children and young people. The Government recognises challenges with workforce capacity and out-of-hours support, but our ambition is that children and young people in England will get timely support for their mental health needs.