Government response to calls for urgent action on mental health unacceptable, says Jeremy Hunt
17 March 2022
Committee Chair Jeremy Hunt has called for action by Health Secretary Sajid Javid after the Government published its response to a report on the mental health care and treatment of children and young people in which it failed to make decisions on nearly half of the recommendations.
A call for a ban on the use of prone restraint on children and young people in all inpatient settings and in transit is one of the recommendations without a decision. In a letter to Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt said having waited more than three months for a response it was not acceptable to be told that the Department of Health and Social Care was still considering these recommendations.
Government Response and letter to the Liaison Committee
- Correspondence to the Secretary of State on the Government's Response to the Committee's Report on Children and young people's mental health
- Correspondence to the Chair of the Liaison Committee on the Government's Response to the Committee's Report on Children and young people's mental health
Chair's comment
Health and Social Care Committee Chair Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP said:
“We called on the Government in December to accept our urgent recommendations to address failures in the mental health treatment and care of young people. Despite having three months to respond, we are now told that no decisions have been made on nearly half of our 25 recommendations.
Today I have written to the Health Secretary Sajid Javid to say this is unacceptable and asking for a clear indication of whether the Government intends to accept or reject what we are calling for. This includes a ban on the continued use of prone restraint on children and young people despite guidance stating that prone restraint should be avoided due to the increased risk of death from this position.
I have also written to the Chair of the parliamentary Liaison Committee about the Government response which enables Ministers to evade further scrutiny. I consider it disrespectful not only to the Committee but more importantly to the witnesses who spoke to us often about very difficult personal experiences.”
Further information
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