Government responds to community mental health service probe

The Government has committed to acting on recommendations following a critical report on the failure of community mental health services.

The cross-party Parliamentary Health and Social Care Committee’s recently-published report found that community mental health services were ‘failing too many people’, with individuals ‘struggling to navigate a complex, poorly-resourced system’, clinicians ‘frustrated they can’t provide the level of care they would like to’, and families losing loved ones ‘knowing they could have been saved if care had been more responsive’.

The report states: “At a time when the NHS is under enormous strain, we understand competing pressures, but we must actively resist letting mental health drop down that priority list.

“Our recommendations nudge, urge, and compel this and all future governments, and the NHS itself, to recognise the continued disparity of esteem between mental and physical health and to continue to battle against it.

“As this report shows, while some progress has been made, we still have a very long way to go.”

It said many people with severe and enduring mental illness are continuing to fall through the gaps of community mental health services, experiencing unacceptably-long waits to access care, being discharged without ongoing support while they are still in recovery, and being denied care because they do not meet arbitrary thresholds.

“Too often, support is only available when people reach crisis point,” it warns.

The timing of the inquiry comes as the Government’s proposed new Mental Health Bill progresses through Parliament.

And the committee makes a number of recommendations to improve services. These include:

• Extending and resourcing the 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centre pilots to help ensure timely, community-based support and reduce avoidable admissions
• Implementing national access and waiting time standards for mental health services to put mental health on the same standing as physical health care
• Restoring physical health check targets for people living with severe mental illness
• Establishing an independent mental health commissioner to hold the system to account and ensure community mental health services receive the sustained investment and attention they urgently need

The report states: “Service users, their families, carers, and loved ones have been clear: high-quality care must be person centred, responsive to the full range of needs individuals experience, and ensure involvement of their wider networks.

“Current services too often fall short – focusing narrowly on diagnosis, overlooking physical health, and failing to support people with housing, employment, and social connection.

“People are more than a diagnosis and the support they are given must reflect this through integrated approaches that take account of the whole person, the enduring nature of severe mental illness, and recognise the vital role played by families and carers.”

Responding to the report, the Government said that, as well as the pending new act, it had recruited 7,000 extra mental health workers since July 2024 and would provide more than 900,000 children and young people with access to a mental health support team by the end of this spring.

It is also publishing a new modern service framework (MSF) for severe mental illness (SMI), which will set consistency in clinical standards across the country and rolling out six community based mental health centre pilots, underpinned by £473m in funding.

To deliver the shift from hospital to neighbourhood-based services, the Government is also committing to:

• Accelerating the rollout of mental health support teams in schools and colleges to reach full national coverage by 2029
• Expanding NHS Talking Therapies so that 915,000 people will complete a course of treatment by March 2029
• Continuing to expand Individual Placement and Support (IPS) for those with severe mental illness or addiction
• Eliminating out-of-area placements for mental health patients by March 2027
• Opening around 85 mental health emergency departments
• Reducing the longest waits for specialist children and young people’s mental health services
• Ensure 100% coverage of electronic patient record systems which will join-up care across community mental health services

Embracing the use of technology moving forward, policymakers are also planning to:

• Create a digital front door for mental healthcare through the NHS App
• Invest in digital therapeutics approved by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to help close treatment gaps

And it will implement measures to streamline funding models, further strengthen the mental health workforce, and advance accountability and transparency in mental healthcare.