Meeting of the Parliament 27 November 2019
I would like to make a little progress first, and then I will see whether I have time.
The Government is taking a long-term, wide-ranging approach to mental health issues. We are working with delivery partners and service users to put in place meaningful responses to changing demands and expectations. In 2017-18, our total investment in mental health services exceeded £1 billion for the first time, and in 2018-19 it reached £1.1 billion.
Mental health services will remain a funding priority for the Government in the future. That includes providing targeted funding, such as last year’s commitment to fund an additional 80 child and adolescent mental health services staff, and a package worth £54 million over the past four years to support access to CAMHS and psychological therapies. Mental health services were one of the key priority areas that the Government laid down as part of this year’s NHS board annual operating plan process. Boards were asked to provide their plans to meet waiting time standards for mental health services alongside those for key aspects of physical health services. That work will be intensified in the year ahead.
It is important that we maintain our focus on clinical services, and we will always do so. However, we must also recognise that a clinical response is not always the most appropriate one. For many people, earlier support that focuses on returning to good mental health quickly is the right approach, and the Government continues to build on that. In the two years since we made our commitment to funding an additional 800 mental health workers, integration authorities have been working to ensure that those new resources support early intervention and, where possible, a preventative approach to mental health problems. It is important that those 800 workers are placed where they are—