“But there is something else we need to do.

I recently met Rachel, she told me her story of trying to get help for her anorexic daughter.

Rachel told me how her daughter was sent ‘out of area’ three times over six years to different hospitals including over 300 miles away to Scotland.

Care was always inconsistent in a mental health system fragmented, understaffed, cut back suffering from years of neglect.

It meant a vulnerable teenage girl, desperately ill, left trapped in an endless cycle of admission, relapse and discharge.

As a father of two girls, I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried listening to her story.

We can’t allow – I won’t allow – families to be let down like that.

So we will fully fund child and adolescent mental health services, we’ll invest in eating disorder services and end the injustice of children treated on adult wards or sent miles from home. As we finally deliver true parity of esteem for mental health services.

So in place of fear, we offer hope again.”

Jon Ashworth 26/09/2018