Our ref: DE-1139126

Dear Mr Ralph,
 
Thank you for your correspondence of 29 June about mental health.  I have
been asked to reply.

I note your concerns.

The Freedom of Information Act only applies to recorded information such
as paper or electronic archive material.  As your correspondence asked for
general information, rather than requesting recorded information or
documentation, it did not fall under the provisions of the Act.

I should clarify that the Department of Health and Social Care is
responsible for leadership and overall funding for health and social care;
it is, however, the responsibility of local NHS organisations to use that
funding to meet the needs of the populations to which they are
responsible.  You may therefore wish to raise your concerns with
individual NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), which make decisions
about which mental health services to commission.

More generally, the Government increased spending on mental health to
£11.6billion in 2016/17, with a further investment of £1billion every year
by 2020/21, so that it can ensure that clinically appropriate mental
health services continue to be provided to those who need them. 

The Government has invested over £120million to introduce waiting time
standards for mental health services.  Over the last Spending Review, it
also invested over £400million in the Improving Access to Psychological
Therapies programme to ensure access to talking therapies for those who
need them, and this has contributed to achieving very real improvements in
the lives of people with anxiety and depression.

Spending is tracked by CCGs.  The Mental Health Investment Standard
(MHIS), previously known as parity of esteem, is the requirement for CCGs
to increase investment in mental health services in line with their
overall increase in allocation each year.  The NHS planning guidance for
2018/19 states that all CCGs will be required to meet the MHIS, and this
will be subject to confirmation by their auditors.

Funding alone is not enough, which is why there is greater transparency in
mental health provision through the NHS England Dashboard, first published
in October 2016.  The Dashboard increases the visibility of how each CCG
is progressing the recommendations of the independent Mental Health
Taskforce and includes data on waiting times and funding.  The Dashboard
can be viewed at
[1]https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health....

I am sorry I cannot be more helpful

Yours sincerely,
 
Rory Howard
Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries
Department of Health and Social Care

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References

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