Centre for Mental Health

Mental Health Services will need major spending boost to implement Government Policy in full, says new report

12 January 2007

Substantial extra resources have gone into mental health care in recent years, but total spending still needs to rise by a further 50% in real terms, and staff numbers by nearly 40%, to implement Government policy in full, according to a report published today by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (SCMH).

Delivering the Government's Mental Health Policies: Services, staffing and costs shows what would be needed to meet the ten-year National Service Framework for adult mental health care and subsequent guidance in full by 2010/11.

It finds that public spending on mental health services for working-age adults rose by an unprecedented 7% a year in real terms between 1999/00 and 2005/06, when it reached £4.9 billion. By 2010/11, spending is likely to rise to £6 billion. But to meet government guidance that figure would need to be £7.5 billion.

Overall staff numbers need to increase by 38% between 2005/06 and 2010/11 to deliver policy. This includes nearly 4,000 more medical staff and nearly 20,000 more qualified nurses.

The report examines the staffing requirements of each element of the National Service Framework (NSF) in detail. It sets out how many staff and what other resources are needed to offer the full range of services set out in the NSF and subsequent guidance, for example on psychological therapies.

Angela Greatley, chief executive of SCMH, said: "The National Service Framework for mental health was a hugely ambitious ten-year plan. A great deal of extra investment has gone into achieving much of it. But there remain major gaps, especially in mental health promotion and in primary care, and it now looks unlikely that it will be achieved in full by 2010/11.

"Increasing mental health staffing remains a massive challenge for the NHS and social services. Across all professions and among support staff, recruitment, training and retention need a boost.

"As the National Service Framework approaches its final phase, we must now look at what will follow it. Effort will be needed to fill the gaps that remain and to set out new plans to tackle the exclusion that people with mental health problems continue to face in their everyday lives."

Key statistics from the report

Financial requirements (all figures in 2005/06 prices):

Public spending on adult mental health in England, 1999/2000: £3.3bn.

Public spending on adult mental health in England, 2005/06: £4.9bn.

Projected public spending on adult mental health in England, 2010/11: £6.0bn.

Required public spending on adult mental health in England, 2010/11: £7.5bn.

Staffing requirements:

	Current staff, 2005/06	Required staff, 2010/11
Consultant psychiatrists	2,689	4,075
Other medical staff	4,446	6,844
Qualified nurses	51,298	70,790
Social workers	6,124	10,211
Clinical psychologists, psychotherapists and counsellors	13,623	16,320
All above groups	78,180	108,240