Health Management and Policy Alert

Mental health services for children and young people

Public Accounts Committee -
This report finds that in 2017-18 only three in ten children and young people with a mental health condition received NHS-funded treatment, and many more faced unacceptably long waits for treatment. It concludes that the government has no comprehensive, long-term plan for how it will fulfil its commitment to implement Future in Mind, which set out a cross-sector vision for how to support children and young people’s mental health.

• Report
• Public Accounts Committee - news

The NHS long term plan

NHS England -

The plan focuses on improving services outside hospitals and moving towards more joined-up, preventative and personalised care for patients, and the ambition to establish integrated care systems in every part of the country by 2021. It includes measures to: improve out-of-hospital care, supporting primary medical and community health services; ensure all children get the best start in life by continuing to improve maternity safety; support older people through more personalised care and stronger community and primary care services; and make digital health services a mainstream part of the NHS. In addition, this ten-year plan includes measures to prevent 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases, and better access to mental health services for adults and children.

• Plan
• Press release

The NHS long term plan

NHS England -

The plan focuses on improving services outside hospitals and moving towards more joined-up, preventative and personalised care for patients, and the ambition to establish integrated care systems in every part of the country by 2021. It includes measures to: improve out-of-hospital care, supporting primary medical and community health services; ensure all children get the best start in life by continuing to improve maternity safety; support older people through more personalised care and stronger community and primary care services; and make digital health services a mainstream part of the NHS. In addition, this ten-year plan includes measures to prevent 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases, and better access to mental health services for adults and children.

• Plan
• Press release

How is the NHS performing? December 2018 quarterly monitoring report

The King's Fund -
Eight out of ten NHS trust finance directors say that funding pressures have led to longer waiting times for people who need mental health treatment, finds our latest quarterly monitoring report. This report once more finds that patients are waiting too long for care and NHS trusts and CCGs remain under tremendous financial pressure. Midway through 2018/19 we are seeing waits for routine and emergency care that have not been seen for a decade, and half of NHS providers are forecasting a financial deficit.

• Report
• The King's Fund - press release

The Women’s Mental Health Taskforce: final report

Department of Health and Social Care -
The Women’s Mental Health Taskforce was formed in response to a rise in mental ill health among women. The taskforce’s final report sets out how women’s experience of mental ill health can differ to men’s. It covers: core themes in women’s mental health; the involvement of women with lived experience; principles for service design; and future strategic priorities. The report urges commissioners and providers across the health and care system to take note of the report’s findings and to embed these in their work.

• Report
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Health matters: reducing health inequalities in mental illness

Public Health England -
This guidance brings together data and evidence of what works in removing health inequalities experienced by people living with mental illness. It focuses on some of the actions that local areas can take to reduce these health inequalities, so that people with mental illness can achieve the same health outcomes and life expectancy as the rest of the population.

• Guidance
• Public Health England - publications

Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill

House of Commons Library - 
This briefing provides an overview of the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill, and the debates and amendments made during the Bills Lords stages, ahead of its Second Reading in the Commons on 18 December 2018. The intention of the Bill is to reform the process for authorising arrangements which enable people who lack capacity to consent to be deprived of their liberty (for the purpose of providing them with care or treatment).

• Briefing
• Summary

Equality analysis: liberty protection safeguards – Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill

Department of Health and Social Care - 
This document looks at the positive, neutral and negative effects that new legislation could have on people with protected characteristics and other groups, such as carers.

• Report

Modernising the Mental Health Act: increasing choice, reducing compulsion

Department of Health and Social Care -
This independent review of the Mental Health Act 1983 sets out recommendations for government on how the Act and associated practice needs to change. It covers four principles that the review believes should underpin the reformed Act: choice and autonomy; least restriction; therapeutic benefit; and people as individuals. The review looked at: rising rates of detention under the Act; the disproportionate number of people from black and minority ethnic groups detained under the Act; and processes that are out of step with a modern mental health care system.

• Report
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Community mental health survey 2018

Care Quality Commission -
This survey looks at the experiences of people receiving community mental health services. It finds that people’s experiences of the care they receive from community-based mental health services have continued to deteriorate. It highlights concerns around access to care, care planning and support for people with mental health conditions in relation to physical health needs, financial advice or benefits.

• Reports and supporting documents
• Care Quality Commission - press release