The Budget and its impact on Mental Health Services

The government’s failure to address the mental health crisis is a devastating blow to millions of people suffering in silence. Patients are being left to languish on waiting lists, while those fortunate enough to receive treatment are enduring poor conditions in NHS hospitals.

Despite acknowledging the growing mental health crisis and the millions of people on waiting lists, the recent budget announcement from Rachel Reeves offers little substantive support. While limited funding for crisis centres is welcome, a more comprehensive approach is needed to address the root causes of mental illness and prevent crises from occurring.

Minish Patel, Associate Director of Policy and Influencing at Mind said: 

“While the Chancellor did acknowledge the numbers of people on mental health waiting lists in her speech, there is sadly very little in the budget on how the UK government plans to address this.  

Just last week we saw two reports detailing the terrible state of our mental health hospitals. The reports found that patients were experiencing harm and even losing their lives due to crumbling buildings and understaffing. People are being retraumatised when they’re most unwell and it is a result of years of neglect and underinvestment in our mental health services.    

But despite these reports, despite the two million people on mental health waiting lists and despite the fact mental health accounts for 20% of illness but only receives 10% of NHS funding, there is nothing substantial in the Budget that seeks to address these issues. This is particularly troubling given the emphasis the government have placed on driving down waiting lists for physical health. 

The limited funding (£26 million) for new crisis centres is welcome, but we need to see investment in services to prevent people reaching crisis point in the first place. 

We’ll be challenging the government to use its forthcoming 10-year NHS plan to address what the budget failed to do.”