Election 2017 Party Policy Guide: Child health

Conservatives

Labour

Liberal Democrats

Commentary

Children's health has formed a central plank of the manifestos of the three main political parties. Although the Conservative Party's pledges lack any firm financial commitment, they have promised to continue their efforts to improve mental health services by publishing a green paper by the end of the year and reform services so that children with serious conditions are seen within an "appropriate" timeframe.

Labour goes further, offering a firm commitment to invest £250m to establish a children's health fund, and £90m counselling services to all schools. Labour also says it will ringfence mental health budgets to ensure funding reaches the frontline - seemingly attempting to address a concern that a government injection of £1.4bn to improve child and adolescent mental health services is failing to make it to its intended destination, instead being "siphoned" into other hard-pressed NHS services.

The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, say they will introduce a six-week maximum waiting time for treatment for anxiety or depression, and no more than two weeks for a first episode of psychosis.

Sarah Brennan, chief executive of YoungMinds, says it is vital that the next government guarantees that services are properly funded.

"As a society, we also need to do far more to prevent mental health problems from developing in the first place," she says.

"To start with, we urgently need to rebalance our education system, so that schools are able to prioritise wellbeing and not just exam results."