Improving Access to Mental Health Services inquiry
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“The Department of Health and NHS England are starting to make progress with the actions needed to implement access and waiting time standards for people with mental health conditions, but much remains to be done, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). The Department and NHS England have made a clear commitment to improve mental health services for people who need them. In 2011, the government set an ambition that mental health would be valued as much as physical health. In October 2014, the Department and NHS England set a first set of standards for the access to mental health services that people should expect and how long they should have to wait for treatment. Full cost implications not well understood Improving care for people with mental health problems depends on action by many local organisations working together. However, the full cost of implementing the new access and waiting time standards and meeting longer term ambitions for better services is not well understood. The Department estimated that achieving the commitments made in the first three areas—improving access to psychological therapies (IAPT), early intervention in psychosis and liaison psychiatry services—could be £160 million a year more than the estimated £663 million that clinical commissioning groups spent on these services in 2014–15. Subsequent indicative analysis suggests that the cost of improving access further could be substantially higher, although there is considerable uncertainty around these estimates. The Department and NHS England have made available £120 million of additional funding over the two years 2014–15 and 2015–16. However, most of the cost of implementing the new access and waiting time standards will be met from clinical commissioning groups' existing budgets, at a time when the NHS is under increasing financial pressure.”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
One in four adults is diagnosed with a mental illness at some point in their lives, but only around a quarter of people estimated to need mental health services have access to them. The Department of Health and NHS England have a laudable ambition to improve mental health services but, given the current pressures on the NHS budget, we are sceptical about whether this is affordable, or achievable without compromising other services. Achieving ‘parity of esteem’ between mental and physical health is a task for the whole of government. The challenge is to build joined-up, well-configured services within the health system and across other parts of government that provide people in all areas of the country with access to the services they need, near to where they live. Achieving parity of esteem will also depend on the health system having the right staff, with the right skills in the right places. Staff costs represent the largest part of the cost of services. But the workforce needed to achieve parity of esteem, and the consequential cost, is poorly understood. Better information is also needed to assess the gap between current mental health services and need so that this can be used to inform planning and decision making.
What the government said
No government response is linked to this report.
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 14 March 2016 to its close on 4 January 2018.
- Oral evidence 15 Jun 2016
- Report 21 Sep 2016
What it recommended
The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 16th Report - Improving access to mental health services ↗ on parliament.uk.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1
- 15 Jun 2016No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗