Karin Smyth

I understand that the previous debate was on SEND; I am sure my hon. Friend will pick up that point with the relevant Minister. As I have said, we are rolling out more support into schools, so that should join up to support those young people. We are also transforming mental health services through the 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres, to support our ambition to shift care from hospitals to communities. People will also get better direct access to mental health support and advice 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the NHS app, without needing a GP appointment. Our ambition is that, through improving access to mental health support in the community, we will prevent the escalation of mental health needs for all people, including autistic people. My hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth West asked a number of questions that I hope I have largely addressed. Regarding anti-ligature doors and specialist suicide prevention for in-patient units, I know that she has received a letter from the Department. I will make sure that officials provide a more thorough answer on the issues outlined in that request. She also raised the issue of the transformation programme, and support for and work with families. We have committed to developing a new national autism strategy to help support the direction of local systems to include families. I will ask officials to consider the specific issues that my hon. Friend raised, and make sure that she gets an answer. I also assure my hon. Friend that, on out-of-area placements, ICBs have published plans to localise in-patient care under the national in-patient commissioning framework. To support that, we have allocated £75 million in this financial year to help stop mental health patients being sent far away for treatment. I know from my own constituency work that that is an issue of great concern. We will make sure that we are focused on it. I am happy to request that the Minister responsible for this policy area, my hon. Friend the Member for Aberafan Maesteg (Stephen Kinnock), meet my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth West and her constituent. I know that he wanted to attend this debate, but could not do so for family reasons. We will get that meeting in train. I again thank my hon. Friend for raising such an important issue, and recognise the tireless efforts of her and her constituent to raise awareness of mental health needs, and the need for support for autistic women and girls. I also thank all hon. Members in this debate who raised issues on behalf of their constituents. This is a really important issue for many of us, and I hope that my comments have gone some way to assure people that we take it very seriously, and are committed to working with them to make life better for people. Question put and agreed to.