The Government’s three-year planning guidance for the NHS today sets out some welcome actions for improving mental health care but falls far short of the level of ambition we need, and fails to set standards for mental health care funding, access, quality or equity, Centre for Mental Health chief executive Andy Bell said today.
Responding to the publication of the Medium Term Planning Framework for the NHS in England, Andy Bell said: “The Planning Framework sets out priorities for integrated care boards across England for the next three years. Its level of ambition for mental health services is very limited. We welcome the commitment to extend mental health support teams to all schools and colleges by 2029 and to increase the number of people who can benefit from life-changing Individual Placement and Support employment services.
“There are some striking omissions in the Planning Framework. There is still no commitment to equitable access and waiting time standards for mental health services, three years after these were set out by NHS England. There is no mechanism to protect mental health services spending and ensure the share of spend – at less than 9% currently – is increased to meet rising levels of need. And there is not a single prevention goal for mental health, nor any action to tackle the 15-20 year life expectancy gap for people living with a mental illness.
“The Planning Framework makes a clear and welcome commitment to fight discrimination. This is urgently needed. It is therefore disappointing that it does not include the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework as an essential component of a just and fair health care system.
“The Planning Framework seeks to ‘reduce’ inappropriate out-of-area hospital placements and the use of ‘locked rehabilitation’. We need to see these practices end, and this can only be achieved by investing in the right support close to home.
“It is disappointing that the Planning Framework commits only to creating ‘mental health emergency departments’ rather than putting in place effective systems of urgent care for people in mental health emergencies.
“We are however encouraged that the Planning Framework signals the creation of a ‘modern service framework’ for ‘serious mental illness’. This has the potential to bring about a real shift in mental health care if it is sufficiently comprehensive, ambitious, and coproduced with people living with mental health difficulties.”
