MPs to examine the state of community mental health services in new inquiry

The Health and Social Care Committee today (Tuesday 17 December) launches an inquiry to examine the provision of community mental health services for adults with severe mental health needs. 

The inquiry will focus on the experience of patients receiving mental health care in the community, with MPs examining what high quality care looks like from the point of view of adults with severe mental illness (SMI). 

The Committee will investigate the current state of access to community mental health services for adults with SMI, considering how access could be improved across the country. 

The inquiry will also scrutinise the implementation and effectiveness since 2019 of the Community Mental Health Framework, which was intended to move away “from siloed, hard-to-reach services towards joined-up care and whole population approaches”.  

Issues over access to mental health services were highlighted in Lord Darzi's report into the state of the NHS in England, which found that for people needing to access mental health services, “long waits have become normalised”. Darzi found that there were around 1 million people waiting to access mental health services by April 2024, including 345,000 referrals where people were waiting more than a year for first contact. 

As part of their inquiry, the cross-party Committee will also probe how the wider health and social needs of people with SMI can be addressed, including in employment and housing. MPs will explore how community mental health services can work with social care, the third sector and local government to better address the wider determinants of mental health outcomes. 

The Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, Layla Moran MP, said: 

“For people who have severe and enduring mental health conditions, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and severe depression, community mental health services are a lifeline. But far too often they are ignored. 
 
“We want to examine what is missing from those services, who has access to high quality support and who is falling through gaps, and where there are examples of best practice that we can learn from. We know that community mental health care providers are under immense pressure, and in this inquiry we want to look at the interventions that would best enable delivery of high quality services. 
 
“But it is not only health services that support people's mental health - employment and housing support also play an important role. We want to look at how these different services can be integrated and built around the needs of patients, and we will investigate some examples of good practice and what needs to happen to scale up the adoption of these practices across the country. 
 
“Our committee wants to hear from people with lived experience and practitioners in the field. We want to put patients, their families and communities at the heart of this inquiry, to understand what high quality care looks like from their point of view.” 

Call for evidence 

To inform its inquiry, the Committee is now accepting written evidence submissions that respond to the following questions by Tuesday 4 February.

1. What does high-quality care look like for adults with severe mental illness and their families/carers?  

    a. How could the service user journey be improved both within community mental health services and in accessing support provided by other services/agencies?  

    b. How could this be measured/monitored locally and nationally?  

2. What is the current state of access for adults with severe mental illness to community mental health services?  

     a. What progress has been made in implementing waiting time and access standards for community mental health services?

     b. How could access be improved across the country? 

3. Has the Community Mental Health Framework been an effective tool for driving the delivery of more integrated, person-centred community mental health services?  

4. How can community mental health services work with social care, the third sector and local government to better address service users' health and wider social needs that are wider determinants of mental health outcomes?  

      a. How could the funding system be reformed to more effectively drive transformation in the delivery of integrated and person-centred community mental health services?   

5. What blockers or enablers should policy interventions prioritise addressing to improve the integration of person-centred community mental health care?  

6. What are the examples of good or innovative practice in community mental health services?  

      a. What needs to happen to scale up the adoption of these practices across the country? 

ENDS

Notes to editors 

• The Committee's inquiry page will be live here on Tuesday 17 December.
• The Committee's inquiry will be examining provision of community mental health services for people with severe mental illness, a term which refers to people with psychological problems that are often so debilitating that their ability to engage in functional and occupational activities is severely impaired. SMI includes diagnoses such as schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder or other psychotic illnesses that cause severe functional impairment. 
• This new inquiry comes after an inquiry carried out by the predecessor Health and Social Care Committee in 2021 on mental health provision for children and young people. The Committee plans to do further work in this area in due course.