Written questions by Ribeiro-Addy.

What steps he is taking to improve access to community-based mental health support for low-income children and families.

There are currently approximately 65 locally funded early support hubs in England offering early access mental health interventions to thousands of children and young people aged 11 to 25 years old, including those from low-income families.The Department is running a £8 million Shared Outcomes Fund project throughout 2024/25 to boost and evaluate the impact of 24 of these existing early support hubs, including two in London.In addition, we will roll out Young Futures hubs in every community. This national network is expected to bring local services together, deliver support for teenagers at risk of being drawn into crime or facing mental health challenges and, where appropriate, deliver universal youth provision. They will provide open access mental health support for children and young people in every community.We will be working closely with colleagues across the Government to design Young Futures hubs, as well as engaging widely with young people and stakeholders to shape their service offer.

What steps she plans to take to monitor the effectiveness of her Department's work to support the mental health of children in poverty in (a) schools and (b) other educational settings.

This government is committed to improving mental health support for all children and young people. This is critical to breaking down barriers to opportunity and learning. The right support should be available to every young person that needs it, which is why the department will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school. The government will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults. To improve children’s mental health, this government is committed to tackling child poverty and alleviating the impact of poverty on families. Child poverty has gone up by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to learn and to prosper. The government’s Child Poverty Taskforce have already started the urgent work to publish its Child Poverty Strategy in spring 2025. The taskforce will drive forward short- and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty. Further details on the taskforce can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/child-poverty-taskforce-kicks-off-urgent-work-to-publish-strategy-in-spring. Alongside these efforts to tackle the root causes of child poverty, the department also makes use of key national data sets to look at children and young living in economic disadvantage. For example, the department collects its own data set on children and young people’s wellbeing via the Parent, pupil and learner voice panel survey and provides representative data multiple times a year, including splits by subgroups such as for pupils eligible for free school meals. The department has previously also used data from sources such as the Programme for International Student Assessment, the Mental Health of Children and Young People in England survey, and the Health Behaviours of School Aged Children study to understand trends in children’s mental health and wellbeing over time and difference for different groups. The department will continue to use these and to explore new ways to measure the impact of its commitments to lift children out of poverty.

Communities and Local Government, if she will publish a strategy on ending all forms of homelessness.

Homelessness levels are far too high. This has a devastating impact on those affected and harms our communities.We must address this and deliver long-term solutions. The Government is considering these issues carefully and is committed to putting Britain back on track to ending homelessness. To do this we will develop a new cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils across the country.

With reference to the Answer of 9 February 2024 to Question 12736 on Israel: Armed Forces, how many Israeli armed forces personnel were undertaking training in the UK on 9 September 2024; which courses they took part in; and to which UK military bases they were posted.

I thank the hon. Member for her question, I’m sure she will understand I am unable to provide an answer in order to protect personal information.