26.11.15
Mental health groups welcome extra £600m, but want clarity on spending commitments
Mental health charities have welcomed the chancellor’s announcement that an additional £600m is to be invested in mental health services, but there needs to be greater clarity around spending commitments.
In yesterday’s Spending Review, George Osborne said there was one part of the NHS that has been neglected for too long – and that’s mental health.
“In the last Parliament we made a start by laying the foundations for equality of treatment, with the first ever waiting time standards for mental health,” he said.
“We build on that with £600m additional funding – meaning that by 2020 significantly more people will have access to talking therapies, perinatal mental health services, and crisis care.”
It was noted that NHS England’s Mental Health Taskforce will report in early 2016 and the government will work with them to set out transformative plans, including for perinatal mental health and coverage of crisis care.
But Andy Bell, chair of the Mental Health Policy Group, which consists of Mind, Centre for Mental Health, Mental Health Foundation, Mental Health Network, Rethink Mental Illness and Royal College of Psychiatrists, said it is vital that “we see more investment in mental health from NHS England going forward if we are to achieve the turnaround we so desperately need”.
“We hope that NHS England will follow the chancellor’s lead in responding to the recommendations of the Mental Health Taskforce early next year, to ensure that the funding translates to real change and focused investment on the ground,” he said.
Bell added, however, that the group is particularly concerned about potential cuts to public health budgets in this Parliament and continued pressures on social care and housing, which all have the potential to have a major impact on people with mental health problems and their families.
It was revealed yesterday that public health budgets will be cut 4% year-on-year, and that directors of adult social care and leaders of councils do not believe that increasing Council Tax will raise enough to fund the social care system, which is on the “brink of collapse”.
The social and economic cost of mental health problems is currently estimated at over £100bn a year, added Bell, so the group is calling on the government and NHS England to clarify their spending commitments around mental health to ensure that it receives its fair share for each of the next five years.
Former care minister Norman Lamb MP said that getting mental health recognised in this way – with an extra £600m investment – is “certainly progress”.
But Brian Dow, Rethink Mental Illness director of external affairs, said that during the last Parliament, funding for mental health services were cut, in real terms, by 8.25% – almost £600m.
He agrees the latest investment is “good news”. But added that realistically it is “not enough” to get anywhere near the government’s commitment to put mental and physical health on an equal footing.
Cathy Warwick, CEO of the Royal College of Midwives, added that she hopes the extra money will help put into place more effective ways of working such as better continuity of care for pregnant women, improved postnatal care, and real choice about place of birth.
“I do though have concerns that some of the positive effects of this extra money will be offset by losses elsewhere, such as disinvestment in welfare, education cuts and less money for public health,” she said.