Question follow-through · 61889

Mental Health: Reading

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) parents and (b) carers reading to children in the early years on the mental wellbeing of (i) children and (ii) those (A) parents and (B)

answeredDepartment of Health and Social Care

About this written question

A written question asks a government minister for information in writing. Parliament publishes the question and any answer.

Answering body
Department of Health and Social Care
Tabled
23 Jun 2025
Target answer date
25 Jun 2025
Answer
3 Jul 2025 · 10 calendar days after tabling

Elapsed calendar days describe the record timeline, not whether Parliament considers an answer on time.

More questions by this MP on Health and care

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Recorded timeline

  1. 23 Jun 2025

    Question tabled

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) parents and (b) carers reading to children in the early years on the mental wellbeing of (i) children and (ii) those (A) parents and (B)

  2. 25 Jun 2025

    Target answer date

    Date supplied by the official written-questions record.

  3. 3 Jul 2025

    Answer published

    No such assessment has been made. We know that according to research, reading helps to reduce stress levels and could be beneficial to mental health and well-being.

Open official record

Official data retrieved 28 Sept 2026.

Later records

Possible follow-up questions

Strong links require the same MP, department and exact heading. Other same-department questions are shown as unreviewed candidates, not as confirmed follow-ups. No debate link is asserted unless a stable source relationship exists.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Family Hubs

26 Jun 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of family hubs on (a) neighbourhood health and (b) the delivery of integrated community-based health services.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Care Workers: Pay

10 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average income is of care and support workers; and if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of that income.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Care Workers: Living Wage

10 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many care and support workers in England are paid the national living wage; and whether he plans to increase minimum pay for those workers.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Care Workers: Pay

10 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of Community Integrated Care's report entitled The Caring Economy – Unfair To Care 2025, published on 12 March 2025.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

NHS: Databases

13 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will (a) review and (b) reconsider the contract between the NHS and Palantir for the Federated Data Platform, in the context of the (i) abolition of NHS England, (ii) opposition of the Britis

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Medical Records: Data Protection

13 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to safeguard patient data under NHS contracts with (a) Palantir and (b) other private sector data collectors.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Community Health Services: Children

20 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of waiting times for children’s community health services; and what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for those services.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Community Health Services: Children

20 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the workforce capacity in children’s community health services.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Community Health Services: Children

20 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been allocated to Integrated Care Boards to support the delivery of children’s community health services in each of the last three years.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Community Health Services: Children

20 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support Integrated Care Boards to reduce waiting times for (a) speech and language therapy, (b) physiotherapy, (a) community paediatrics and (d) other communi

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Community Health Services: Children

20 Oct 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to introduce a maximum waiting time target for children’s community health services.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Care Workers: Pay

15 Dec 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the document entitled Fair pay agreement consultation impact assessment, published in October 2025, if he will award an interim uplift to the pay of frontline care workers in the