We are working with NHS Digital, mental health providers and partner organisations to improve the collection of data in the mental health services data set on people referred to secondary mental health services for anxiety and those who self-harm whilst an inpatient. We also fund the Multicentre for Self-Harm to provide representative and reliable data on self-harm in England.

Data on suicide registrations by coroners is collected by the Office for National Statistics and there is a time lag due to the length of time it can take to hold an inquest. Public Health England is piloting a national real-time surveillance system to monitor suspected suicide, by collecting early real time data which can be used to identify patterns of risk and causal factors, to inform national and local responses. HM Treasury has announced £1.2million funding to help support the development of the national system.

NHS Digital separately collects data though hospital episode statistics on the number of accident and emergency (A&E) attendances due to intentional self-harm and the number of finished admission episodes with a secondary diagnosis of intentional self-harm for male patients under the age of 18 years old.

Between 23 March 2020 and 30 November 2020 there were 4,011 A&E attendances due to intentional self-harm for male patients under the age of 18 years old and 2,022 finished admission episodes with a secondary diagnosis of intentional self-harm for male patients under the age of 18 years old. This information only represents activity serious enough to require hospital treatment.

Diagnosis recording within the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) is not mandatory and not all providers submit this information. The recording of diagnoses within the MHSDS is entered using clinical coding which some providers may be unable to do for various reasons. Additionally, a diagnosis may not be confirmed immediately for some patients. There are also other data quality issues around non-completion. Month on month reporting by providers can also be irregular. We are working with NHS Digital, providers and partner organisations to address these issues.

The information requested is shown in the following table:

Source: Mental Health Services Dataset

Notes:

1. Treatment for mental health issues has been defined as people with a hospital stay in a ward setting categorised as a child and adolescent mental health ward.
2. The total provided for 23 March 2020 to 30 November 2020 represents the latest available data.
3. This data for both ranges includes patients whose hospital spell began prior to 23 March but whose hospital treatment continued after that date.

Between 23 March 2019 and 22 March 2020, there were 34,754 boys reported in the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) under 18 years old who were referred to secondary mental health services with a primary reason for referral of anxiety. For the period 23 March 2020 to 30 November 2020, 20,842 boys were referred.

The MHSDS shows that between 23 March 2019 and 22 March 2020 there were 122 incidents of self-harm reported by boys under the age of 18 years old, and between 23 March 2020 and 30 November 2020, there were 82 incidents of self-harm. These numbers are based on the data submitted by the secondary care mental health services to MHSDS and include only incidents of self-harm in the mental health hospitals. The numbers include November provisional data and are likely to be an undercount of the true activity. This is the latest data available to NHS Digital.

For suicide, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that there were 123 suicide registrations relating to boys aged 10-19 years old in 2019 (92 registrations between January and September 2019). Provisional information for January to September 2020 shows that there were 80 suicide registrations relating to boys aged 10-19 years old. All deaths caused by suicide in England are investigated by coroners. Given the length of time it takes to hold an inquest, most deaths are registered around five to six months after they occurred. The number of suicides registered in 2020 should be interpreted with caution due to the pandemic causing further delays on the coroner’s service resulting in further delays to inquests.

Information on the incidence of anorexia nervosa among young and adolescent girls under the age of 18 years old is not available due to poor diagnosis recording in the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS).

Between 23 March 2019 and 22 March 2020 there were 493 reported incidents of self-harm amongst girls under the age of 18 years old reported in MHSDS by the secondary care mental health services. For the period 23 March 2020 to 30 November 2020, there were 399 incidents. These numbers are based on the data submitted by the secondary care mental health services to MHSDS and include only incidents of self-harm in the mental health hospitals. The numbers include November provisional data and are likely to be an undercount of the true activity. This is the latest data available to NHS Digital.

For suicide, the Office for National Statistics reports that there were 63 suicide registrations relating to girls aged 10-19 years old in 2019 (49 registrations between Jan-Sept 2019). Provisional information for January to September 2020 (Jan-Sep) shows that there were 24 suicide registrations relating to girls aged 10-19 years old. All deaths caused by suicide in England are investigated by coroners. Given the length of time it takes to hold an inquest, most deaths are registered around five to six months after they occurred. The number of suicides registered in 2020 should be interpreted with caution due to the pandemic causing further delays on the coroner’s service resulting in further delays to inquests.

The information requested is not held. In order to measure waiting times to mental health services, or to determine if an assessment took place after the patient entered treatment, an access and waiting times standard for the service must be defined for analysis purposes. A national access and waiting times standard has not yet been defined for child and adolescent mental health services.

This information is not held in the required format. We remain committed to delivering the core proposals of the children and young people’s mental health Green Paper, including the introduction of senior leads in mental health and mental health support teams in schools and colleges, as well as the piloting of a four-week waiting time for specialist NHS services. Under the NHS Long Term Plan, an additional 345,000 children and young people will be able to access support through NHS-funded services or school and college-based mental health support teams by 2023-24.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have not published advice or guidance on support that clinical commissioning groups should offer to children on waiting lists and their parents/carers, nor have they assessed local approaches to providing this support.

Children and young people’s mental health covers a wide range of needs and there is no single service model. Commissioners and providers must consider the needs of children and young people and their families and set out how they will provide a range of services to form a comprehensive children and young people’s mental health offer in their local transformation plans.

These plans are whole-system plans that set out how local areas will work together to lead and manage change for children and young people’s mental health. These are refreshed and republished each year.

The information cannot be provided because a national access and waiting times standard for children and young people’s health services has not yet been defined.

We are piloting a new four-week waiting time for children and young people’s mental health services in 12 areas to inform the development of a new national access and waiting times standard.

Information is not collected centrally on the clinical thresholds used by services to determine access to treatment or whether referrals meet these thresholds.

The information cannot be provided because a national access and waiting times standard for children and young people’s health services has not yet been defined.

We are piloting a new four-week waiting time for children and young people’s mental health services in 12 areas to inform the development of a new national access and waiting times standard.

Information is not collected centrally on the clinical thresholds used by services to determine access to treatment or whether referrals meet these thresholds.

We do not hold information nationally on what support is available for children on waiting lists and their parents.

Local clinical commissioning groups commission a wide range of services based on the needs of their patients, and this may include additional or online support that might be helpful to children and their parents when on a waiting list.

The information is not held in the format requested.

The first 59 Mental Health Support Teams will become operational very soon as part of the first wave of 25 ‘trailblazer’ areas, and 12 of these will also test the four-week waiting time for children’s and young people’s mental health services. In July 2019, NHS England confirmed a further 57 areas, where 123 new teams will be deployed from the end of 2020 to early 2021.

We are aiming to roll out Mental Health Support Teams to at least a fifth of the country by the end of 2022/23, with what we have learned from the first wave informing our approach.

This information is not available. The Mental Health Services Data Set does not contain data specific to ‘school-based teams’.

This information is not available. The Mental Health Services Data Set does not contain data specific to ‘school-based teams’.

Approximately 1% of the total National Health Service budget was spent on children and young people’s mental health services in 2018/19 through clinical commissioning group spend and NHS specialised commissioning.

It should be noted that this does not include other areas that may include spending on children and young people’s mental health services, such as primary care and health and justice.

We are spending more than ever before to transform community mental health services, expand crisis care and improve services for children and young people. The Government has also committed to a further £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 of extra investment in mental health services to support 380,000 more adults and 345,000 more children.

The Government recognises that there is an impact on families and children when a woman is involved in the criminal justice system and that children of imprisoned mothers may be particularly affected by a custodial sentence. We have commissioned Lord Farmer to continue his work to enable us to understand what specific measures we can take to help women strengthen family ties, especially with their children, whilst serving sentences in the community, in custody and after they are released.

The number of women in each establishment serving sentences for non-violent offences and the average length of those sentences is set out in table one below.

The percentage of women in each establishment recorded as having children is set out in the table two below. The Ministry of Justice does not have this information broken down by type of offence.

The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the age or the arrangements made for the care of dependent children of women serving custodial sentences. The percentage of women in prison for non-violent offences who are also re-offenders can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Table 1: Female prison population at selected establishments by non-violent offences and average sentence length as at 31 March 2018.

Note

1. Total population figures include women serving custodial sentences, those held on remand, non-criminals and fine defaulters.
2. Sentence length figures do not include those held on remand, non-criminals and fine defaulters.

Table 2: Percentage of women recorded as having children by establishment, 26 June 2018

Notes:

1. The number of children field is not a mandatory field within the NOMIS application and about 400 women across these establishments have no entry on the system.
2. There is no functionality to record the age of children on NOMIS.
3. There are likely to be cases where, when entered onto the system, a child was under the age of 18 but has since passed this milestone and is now classed as an adult.

4. The figures relate to all women, not just those in prison for non-violent offences.

The Government recognises that there is an impact on families and children when a woman is involved in the criminal justice system and that children of imprisoned mothers may be particularly affected by a custodial sentence. We have commissioned Lord Farmer to continue his work to enable us to understand what specific measures we can take to help women strengthen family ties, especially with their children, whilst serving sentences in the community, in custody and after they are released.

The number of women in each establishment serving sentences for non-violent offences and the average length of those sentences is set out in table one below.

The percentage of women in each establishment recorded as having children is set out in the table two below. The Ministry of Justice does not have this information broken down by type of offence.

The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the age or the arrangements made for the care of dependent children of women serving custodial sentences. The percentage of women in prison for non-violent offences who are also re-offenders can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Table 1: Female prison population at selected establishments by non-violent offences and average sentence length as at 31 March 2018.

Note

1. Total population figures include women serving custodial sentences, those held on remand, non-criminals and fine defaulters.
2. Sentence length figures do not include those held on remand, non-criminals and fine defaulters.

Table 2: Percentage of women recorded as having children by establishment, 26 June 2018

Notes:

1. The number of children field is not a mandatory field within the NOMIS application and about 400 women across these establishments have no entry on the system.
2. There is no functionality to record the age of children on NOMIS.
3. There are likely to be cases where, when entered onto the system, a child was under the age of 18 but has since passed this milestone and is now classed as an adult.

4. The figures relate to all women, not just those in prison for non-violent offences.

The Government recognises that there is an impact on families and children when a woman is involved in the criminal justice system and that children of imprisoned mothers may be particularly affected by a custodial sentence. We have commissioned Lord Farmer to continue his work to enable us to understand what specific measures we can take to help women strengthen family ties, especially with their children, whilst serving sentences in the community, in custody and after they are released.

The number of women in each establishment serving sentences for non-violent offences and the average length of those sentences is set out in table one below.

The percentage of women in each establishment recorded as having children is set out in the table two below. The Ministry of Justice does not have this information broken down by type of offence.

The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the age or the arrangements made for the care of dependent children of women serving custodial sentences. The percentage of women in prison for non-violent offences who are also re-offenders can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Table 1: Female prison population at selected establishments by non-violent offences and average sentence length as at 31 March 2018.

Note

1. Total population figures include women serving custodial sentences, those held on remand, non-criminals and fine defaulters.
2. Sentence length figures do not include those held on remand, non-criminals and fine defaulters.

Table 2: Percentage of women recorded as having children by establishment, 26 June 2018

Notes:

1. The number of children field is not a mandatory field within the NOMIS application and about 400 women across these establishments have no entry on the system.
2. There is no functionality to record the age of children on NOMIS.
3. There are likely to be cases where, when entered onto the system, a child was under the age of 18 but has since passed this milestone and is now classed as an adult.

4. The figures relate to all women, not just those in prison for non-violent offences.