What do you think about the Mental health announcements in the budget?

Chancellor Philip Hammond announced a £2bn increase in mental health funding by 2023-24. The money is part of an extra £20bn for NHS England announced by Theresa May in the summer, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland getting proportional extra funding. Some of this money is to be allocated towards:

– ‘comprehensive’ mental health support being available in every large A&E department

– funding for more mental health ambulances

– greater access to community services for people with mental health problems

– specialist crisis teams linking schools, social services and young people’s mental health services

– teams in schools supporting people with mild and moderate mental health problems.

We will be calling on the Chancellor to work with the Accredited Register programme and to make use of the readily available workforce that is already in place with properly trained counsellors, yet being underused.

You can read more on this, including the report on Accredited Registers in the wider workforce, and how putting resources to good use can bring benefits to the public.

https://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/news-and-blog/blog/detail/blog/2018/09/20/untapped-resources-how-the-accredited-registers-workforce-can-make-a-difference-to-public-health-in-the-uk