Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to age-appropriate inpatient mental health care for children and young people.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Government is committed to ensuring that inpatient mental health care for children and young people is safe, high‑quality, recovery‑focused, and delivered in the least restrictive, age‑appropriate settings, supported by reforms to improve standards and consistency of care.
We are taking action to improve access and quality of inpatient and specialist mental health provision. This includes investment to improve inpatient environments and capacity, helping to reduce the need for children and young people to be treated far from home, and implementing reforms to the Mental Health Act to ensure families have greater choice, autonomy, and rights in inpatient settings. Alongside this, we are introducing national frameworks and standards to define high‑quality, evidence‑based care, improving transparency and strengthening oversight of services.
NHS England is also working very closely with all the children and young people mental health providers of inpatient services to ensure that services are based on needs and complexity, not just the young person’s diagnosis or what is routinely provided. This approach to care delivery is in line with guidance published on transitions in April 2026, which is available at the following link:
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