Labour will make mental health treatment available in less than a month

The next Labour Government will guarantee access to mental health treatment in less than a month for all who need it, Keir Starmer will announce today.

The Labour Leader will set out a transformative package to meet what he will describe as “one of the most urgent needs of our time.”

Labour plans would see a radical expansion of the mental health workforce, resulting in over a million more people receiving support each year, alongside unprecedented investment in children’s mental health after the disruption of the pandemic.

Addressing Labour’s conference, Starmer will commit the next Labour Government to:

· Guaranteeing mental health treatment within a month for all who need it, setting a new NHS target, ensuring that patients start receiving appropriate treatment – not simply an initial assessment of needs – within a month of referral

· Recruiting 8,500 new staff so that one million additional people can access treatment every year by the end of Labour’s first term in office

· Putting an open access mental health hub for children and young people in every community, providing early intervention, drop-in services

· Providing specialist mental health support in every school, so that they can support pupils and resolve problems before they escalate. This plan would see a full-time mental health professional in every secondary school and a part time professional in every primary school

· Improving service quality, bringing in the first ever long-term, whole-Government plan for improving mental health outcomes, making early-intervention a reality, and broadening the range of services to those with severe mental health illnesses;

· Giving mental health its fair share of funding, pledging that NHS spending on mental health will never fall and a fair share of mental health funding every time new funding is provided to the NHS.

Labour’s plan would address the current crisis in mental health services, which sees two-fifths of patients waiting for mental health treatment forced to contact emergency or crisis services prior to receiving treatment, with one in ten ending up in A&E. 1 in 4 adults those who had to wait after their initial assessment did not begin treatment for three months or more. The waits for children’s mental health services have been described as “agonising” by the Chief Executive of the Young Minds charity, with a BBC FOI revealing 20% of children are waiting more than 12 weeks to be seen.

Labour will fund the new measures by closing tax loopholes for private equity fund managers and removing the VAT exemption from private schools.

Keir Starmer MP, Leader of the Labour Party, is expected to say:

“One of the urgent needs of our time is mental health. Labour will guarantee that support will be available in less than a month and offer treatment to a million more people each year who need it.

“We’ll make sure children and young people get early help, putting specialist support in every school and a mental health hub in every community.

“This is prevention in action. Helping young people, looking after their well-being.”

Ends

Notes to editors

1. Access to mental health support in less than a month

Labour will introduce a new NHS national target guaranteeing mental health support within a month for those who need it. This will ensure that patients start receiving appropriate treatment – not simply an initial assessment of needs – within a month of referral.

Labour would ensure standards currently under consultation by the NHS enter force and go a step further – defining “start to receive help/care” as the second appointment received by patients.

The first appointment is usually simply an assessment of needs; the second appointment is typically when a patient starts actually receiving therapy on a regular basis. The gap between the first and second appointment can stretch to weeks or months, so a four-week waiting target that refers only to the first appointment is effectively meaningless.

2. Recruit 8,500 mental health staff

The NHS’ existing ambition is for 1.9 million adults and more than 600,000 children to be accessing treatment by 2024.

We want to go further and faster: we’ll build on these existing commitments to ensure that a total of 2.6 million adults and 1 million children are able to access treatment each year by the end of our first term in office.

This will mean by 2029, more than a million additional people – 760,000 additional adults and additional 345,000 children – will be accessing treatment each year compared to 2024.

To make this a reality, we’ll recruit 8,500 new staff to deliver NICE-approved treatment and support for children and adults by the end of our first term.

3. Mental health hubs for children and young people in every community

These hubs provide early intervention and support for young people, a visible, easily-located point of access for mental health care, drop-in services and guiding young people (and their families) to further treatment pathways.

Hub services will be available to all children and young people under 25 on an “open access” basis, with no referral needed.

Research has found that providing services on this basis can help to reach groups who would otherwise be less likely to access mental health treatment.

The Children’s Society (2021) The case for open access well-being services. Available via: https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/information/professionals/resources/case-for-open-access-hubs

It is estimated that these hubs would reach 500,000 young people per year if they were rolled out nationally.

4. Specialist mental health support in every school

Our plan will ensure all children and young people can access the mental health support they need as they transition back to school and the stresses of the last year are reduced.

Under our proposals, every secondary school will have access to the services of one additional full-time specialist staff member, while primary schools will have access to specialist staff time, shared between different local primary schools.

It will ensure that teaching staff are not required to take on additional pastoral responsibilities beyond their areas of expertise, ensuring staff capacity is used most efficiently.

5. Improve service quality with first ever, long-term whole government plan

We’ll bring in the first ever long-term, whole-Government plan to improve outcomes for people with mental health needs, helping make early intervention a reality and ensuring Government policies are joined-up.

And we will broaden the range of services available to people with severe mental illness. This will include expanding treatments available through the world-leading IAPT (“Improving Access to Psychological Therapies”) programme, ensuring that support is available for those who don’t want or need the treatments currently on offer.

This will mean providing a wider range of talking therapies, other treatments such as peer support groups, and more sustained interventions for those with long-term conditions.

6. Ensure mental health gets its fair share of money allocated to the NHS

We will guarantee a fair share of mental health funding every time we make funding commitments for the NHS, unless money is needed for extraordinary circumstances such as the pandemic.

We guarantee that NHS spending on mental health will not fall, and we’ll improve reporting standards so that it is easier to monitor mental health funding.

7. The total per annum cost of this policy package by 2028/29 (the last year of Labour’s first term in office) would be an estimated £1.016bn. This will be paid for through the following fiscal measures:

Scrapping the “carried interest loophole”, a tax loophole enjoyed by a small number of private equity fund managers, which would raise £440 per annum to fund an expansion in the mental health workforce;

Levying VAT on private school fees, which would raise £1.7bn per annum in total, £576m of which would be used to fund mental health hubs and specialist mental health support in schools.