Ruth Cadbury – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his departmental spending on children’s mental health services will be in 2015-16.

Alistair Burt

It is not possible to give a total figure for investment in children and young people’s mental health in 2015-16, as there is no ring-fenced allocation and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are commissioned variously by NHS England, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), local authorities and schools.

As such, there is no single budget for CAMHS, and expenditure on these services, including those commissioned by National Health Service organisations, is taken from general allocations with priorities for investment being determined locally.

However, in addition to resources already available to local communities including through the NHS, local authorities, public health and education, the Government is investing an additional £173 million in 2015-16 to transform support for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, which will include £30 million for eating disorder services.