Mental health services: preparations for improving access

National Audit Office -
This report finds that the Department of Health and NHS England are making progress, particularly in setting priorities and national leadership, but significant risks to implementing the access and waiting times programme remain. The strongest areas are the clear objectives and strong leadership, and a governance framework is being developed. The greatest challenges for the future are collecting data to show whether the standards are being met, building the mental health workforce and reinforcing incentives for providers. It finds that full information does not exist to measure how far the NHS is from meeting the access and waiting time standards, but it is clear that meeting the standards will be a very significant challenge.

• Report
• National Audit Office - press release