Health and Social Care Committee: Community Mental Health Service (Fourth Report of Session 2024–26)

Summary

"Too many people", says this report from the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee, "are continuing to fall through the gaps of our Community Mental Health Services". It says that many experience unacceptably long waits to access care, are discharged without ongoing support, and are denied care because they do not meet arbitrary thresholds.

The Committee wants to see a 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centre in every community. But it says that the chances of this are threatened by short-term funding cycles, lack of digital interoperability, workforce shortages, and unclear plans for national scale-up of 6 pilot centres.

• More specifically, the report states that:
• Mental health accounts for over 20% of the disease burden but receives less than 10% of NHS expenditure.
• The lack of shared care records and data-sharing agreements, particularly with voluntary organisations, hinders collaboration and evaluation.
• The absence of national mental health access and waiting time standards for Community Mental Health services undermines parity of esteem with physical health.
• The removal of the annual physical health check target for people with severe mental illness is a step backwards.

Layla Moran MP, the Committee’s Chair, urges the government and the NHS to recognise the continued disparity of esteem between mental and physical health and to continue to battle against it. But, she says, 'we still have a very long way to go'.