Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, greets Grazia straight from his standing desk – which is appropriate, since we’re here to talk about his newly announced 10-year plan for the NHS, which focuses on prevention and a £20bn cash injection for health services. He tells us he’s doing RED January, an initiative encouraging better mental health by doing something active every day. ‘I went running yesterday, the day before I did some press-ups – and one of my advisors took me boxing, which was great!’
Labour has criticised Hancock’s 10-year plan, saying the NHS is understaffed (a problem Hancock himself has said needs to be solved) but, on the whole, it’s gone down well because, frankly, there’s a lot of good stuff in it – particularly when it comes to maternity provisions, such as an increase in talking therapies for new mothers, as well as the 10% of new fathers who experience mental health difficulties.
‘Giving birth should be one of the most wonderful days of your life,’ says Hancock, who is 40 and has two sons and a daughter, all under 13. ‘But we all know that is often not the case. Depression immediately after birth is well-documented, but it needs to be much more part of the standard support that the NHS gives to mothers. PTSD can manifest itself several years later. We’ve got to make sure that we recognise it and treat it appropriately.’
As a father of three, I imagine Hancock knows all too well what giving birth entails. Was he present for all of them? ‘Yes, of course!’ he says. What were they like, I ask? ‘The experiences were very different…’ he pauses, looking emotional ‘the best way to put it is that I really do understand what it feels like when things don’t go right, and I understand the pressures that can put on families and how worrying and difficult it can be.’
Mental health more generally is another key focus of the plan, including £2.3bn for talking therapies over the next five years and the roll-out of ‘round-the-clock mental health crisis care’ through the NHS 111 service.
‘I’ve been very lucky in having good mental health, but among family and friends I know people [who have suffered]. It’s something I care deeply about getting right.’ It’s not an exaggeration to say that Britain is currently facing a mental health crisis, especially among young people. Why does he think our mental health is plummeting? ‘The pressures are more acute. is is one of the hardest times to be growing up. It’s a very hard time to be a parent, too, because of the amount of pressures that impact on young people.’
He feels that social media is part of the problem. ‘Everybody goes through a period of becoming comfortable with themselves; that’s part of growing up. It was hard in the old world of simple communications, but in this new world it’s harder still. One of the things that strikes me is that self-harm is rising among teenage girls and young women. Thankfully, suicide rates among men are falling overall, but they are rising among women under the age of 25.’
Given the pressures on young women, does he worry about his daughter? ‘Yes, I do,’ he says emphatically. He worries that girls are ‘too often in despair looking at pictures they see online and thinking, “Why don’t I look like that?!”,’ even though ‘many of these pictures are staged – it’s not just somebody on a normal day in their normal setting.’ Are any of his kids on social media yet?
‘No. My daughter is the eldest, she’s 12. Social media companies say their products shouldn’t be used by under-13s and it infuriates me that they make it very easy for under-13s to use them and don’t do anything to stop them, leaving it all down to parents. I’ve asked the Chief Medical Officer to bring in a set of advice, like you have with other things we don’t want to stop people doing, but that do need to be used sensibly, like drinking alcohol.’
Indeed, while David Cameron once awkwardly side-stepped having to say the word ‘tampon’, Hancock appears very comfortable discussing women’s health as a whole. ‘Ending the stigma of talking about women’s health issues – for instance, vaginal mesh surgery – is incredibly important,’ he says. A male politician who doesn’t shy away from using the word vagina; that’s progress indeed.