Ministers must keep their promises and deliver these vital reforms that are long overdue - Berger
Luciana Berger MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health, commenting on the publication of the report of the independent Taskforce on Mental Health, said:
“It is very welcome that NHS England has listened to this independent Taskforce and is committing to reforms and additional investment that our mental health services desperately need.
“If implemented in full, these changes could make a significant difference to a system which has had to contend with funding cuts and staffing shortages at a time of rising demand, leaving too many vulnerable people without the care they need.
“ The real challenge will come in ensuring these recommendations are actually delivered. For too long this Tory Government’s rhetoric on mental health has not matched the reality on the ground. For the thousands of patients who have been left to struggle without the right support, Ministers must keep their promises and deliver these vital reforms that are long overdue.”
Ends
Notes to Editors:
Mental health services have been cut on this Government’s watch:
- In 2011/12 investment in mental health fell for the first time since 2001, by £150m: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/investment-in-mental-health-in-2011-to-2012-working-age-adults-and-older-adults
- The year the mental health budget was cut for the first time in a decade was also the year the Government abolished the annual National Survey of Investment in Mental Health Services.
- Analysis by the Kings Fund showed funding for mental health services has been cut in recent years. Their analysis shows that around 40 per cent of mental health trusts experienced reductions in income in 2013/14 and 2014/15: http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/files/kf/field/field_publication_file/mental-health-under-pressure-nov15.pdf
- According to research by BBC News and the online journal Community Care, mental health trusts in England saw their budgets fall by more than 8% (almost £600m) in real terms over the course of the last parliament: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31970871
- The Department of Health confirmed that the mental health investment the Prime Minister announced in a speech on 10th January was not new money but the allocation of previously announced announced funding: http://www.hsj.co.uk/topics/policy-and-regulation/no-new-money-as-cameron-sets-out-mental-health-priorities/7001519.article
The Government has not met its spending targets:
- After committing £250m to CAMHS for 2015-16, the Government has admitted there will be £77m shortfall on what they have promised: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33740709
- The Government had admitted it will only spend one third of the £15m it promised for perinatal mental health in 2014-15: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-01-06/21406
The mental health system has been under growing pressures with staffing shortages and inadequate care:
- The Kings Fund reported at the end of last year ‘widespread evidence of poor-quality care.’ Only 14 per cent of mental health patients say that they received appropriate care in a crisis, and there has been an increase in the number of patients who report a poor experience of community mental health care: http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/press/press-releases/mental-health-services-patient-care
- There has been a 10.8% reduction in the number of nurses working in mental health since 2010. A reduction of 4450: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-01-07/21586
- There has been a 93.9% increase in vacant and unfilled psychiatry consultant posts since 2011: http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/workinpsychiatry/workforce/census.aspx
- The number of serious incidents in mental health trusts have increased by almost two thirds over a two year period: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35403827
- The number of children turning up in A&E with mental health problems has risen by almost 8% this year and is now more than double what it was in 2010/11: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-12-14/20081/ and http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2015-02-10.224066.h
- The number of children on adult wards has increased since 2010 and by 10% in the past year alone: http://www.parliament.uk/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/commons/2015-03-17/227900 and http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-11-16/16486/
- The number of people becoming so ill they have been detained under the Mental Health Act has increased by 10% in one year: http://www.hscic.gov.uk/article/6781/Mental-Health-Act-detentions-rise-by-almost-ten-per-cent-on-previous-year
- Suicide increased in England in 2014: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/subnational-health4/suicides-in-the-united-kingdom/2014-registrations/stb-suicides-2014.html
what was Norman Lamb up to all those years?