§ Dr. Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when the third tranche of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services modernisation money for financial year 2001–02 will become available. [159157]
§ Mr. HuttonIn 2001–02 we shall be committing £35 million to the development of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) across health and local authorities. This includes the CAMHS Mental Health Grant to local authorities, which we have increased this year by £5 million to £15 million. The funds to the health service, £20 million, are now secure in health authority baseline allocations. I expect both health and local authorities to continue the good progress they have made over the last few years in developing services for this vulnerable group of children and young people.
We set out a three-year modernisation fund programme for CAMHS in 1999, which included a further £10 million in 2001–02. However, in the spending review last year we decided to place as much funding as possible in main health authority allocations, allowing local health authorities to determine themselves how to implement national priorities, of which CAMHS is one.
I am pleased to confirm that CAMHS will be part of the National Service Framework for Children's Services. This is a major development for CAMHS and will ensure that the quality of Child Mental Health Services will be at the top of the National Health Service agenda.