Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Set out a plan for implementing new mental health service standards.
Recommendation
The Department and NHS England have still not committed to rolling out waiting times standards to all mental health services. From 2015, NHSE introduced specific waiting times standards for three service areas – talking therapy services, early intervention in psychosis services and eating disorder services for children and young people. Unlike the standards for physical health services, the current standards for mental health only apply to a limited number of service areas; they do not cover the bulk of core community and inpatient mental health services. In 2022, NHSE consulted on new waiting times standards for mental health services in the community and A&E, but it has not confirmed whether and when these will be implemented. NHSE says it has been improving data collection in preparation for the new standards over the last few years, but that is yet to agree with the Government on “trajectories for working towards meeting those standards”. Stakeholders we spoke to argued that the introduction of new standards would also provide the much needed impetus for providers to improve data, and so poor data was not a reason to delay standards being introduced. Recommendation 5: In its update to us in six months, the Department and NHS England should set out their plan for implementing the new service standards.
Government Response Summary
The government agreed to set out its plan for new service standards. It committed to publishing data for mental health community waiting times by the end of the financial year, with work on setting appropriate standards to follow robust data collection and analysis. An update will be provided in January 2024.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Eating Disorder Services (95% of CYP with eating disorders accessing treatment within 1 week for urgent cases and 4 weeks for routine cases) as well as NHS Talking Therapies services (75% of people accessing treatment within 6 weeks and 95% of people accessing treatment within 18 weeks), as detailed in the Mental Health Implementation Plan. Over the course of the Clinical Review of Standards (CRS), a patient-centred waiting time standard, informed by pilot sites, lived experience advisors and clinical experts was developed, and a public consultation undertaken. Urgent and Emergency Care waiting times data was published on 13 July 2023. Collecting data to measure community waits for mental health is more complex and so will take longer, but the aim is to publish data for mental health community waiting times by the end of the financial year. Work also continues to improve data quality. Once robust baseline data has been collected, work can begin to analyse appropriate standards given projected demand, capacity and resources. Setting a performance standard (i.e. the percentage of people accessing treatment in line with this measure) will need to be considered in the light of this further work and available resources. NHS England will provide an update on progress as part of its joint letter with DHSC to the Committee in January 2024.