Last week was Mental Health Awareness Week, highlighting the importance of taking effective and timely action. Raising awareness of mental health challenges is vital, though real change comes when we take action too.

The statistics are stark.

An estimated 1.7 million people are on mental health waiting lists and the cost to the UK of mental health problems exceeds £117 billion a year.

It is vital that we stand alongside those seeking to make treatment faster, more effective, safe and dignified. Yet we cannot treat our way out of this crisis. That's why we must focus on prevention, stopping mental health problems before they take root.

The online environment also demands urgent attention. Far too often, its potential for good is negated by appalling harms. It is concerning that suicide and eating disorder forums remain accessible two years after the Online Safety Act became law, alongside appalling misogyny, racism and mental health misinformation on major platforms.

Having spent the better part of a decade working on online safety (first as the Secretary of State who introduced the original online harms White Paper in 2019, and subsequently scrutinising the Online Safety Act's passage and implementation) I have consistently argued that children are not adequately protected online.

We need full implementation of the Online Safety Act, with Ofcom being far bolder and quicker in using its powers.

We need to cut off unsafe platforms' access to our children and introduce age ratings based on independent judgement of their appropriateness for children at different developmental stages. We also need new legislation to ensure AI chatbots are fully in scope of the Act.

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I'm concerned that since taking office, this Government has announced funding that has led to the share of spending on mental health services falling as a proportion of overall NHS spending. Recent guidance suggests the Government has abandoned the original Mental Health Investment Standard, introduced under the last Government, which required spending on mental health services to increase in line with overall spending growth.

Instead, they now only require spending to increase by the rate of inflation. These decisions risk undermining progress made to increase mental health funding and improve access to support and services.

Mental Health Awareness Week reminds us that awareness alone is not enough.

We need action from individuals, communities and above all from Government. The mental health of our population is deteriorating at pace, and we need a cross-government plan to reverse this crisis. Our young people, our families and our communities deserve nothing less.