Berger suggests Government had hand in delaying mental health report

By The Press Association24th February 2016News EnglandGovernment / Politics, Mental Health, News England

Ministers have insisted they had no say on the timing or content of a “damning” report into mental health care published when parliament was in recess.

Shadow mental health minister Luciana Berger suggested the Government may have played a part in “delaying” the publication of the report by an independent mental health task force.

But Health Minister Alistair Burt rejected the claim as the issue was raised in the House of Commons, telling MPs: “The timing was not up to Government”.

The report, published last week when MPs were away from Westminster, found that only 15% of people who need psychological therapy in England get access to care while one in 10 children have a diagnosable mental health condition.

It also shone a light on the fact that young people are being sent all over the country for care while suicide rates peaked in 2014 at 4,882 deaths.

The NHS pledged in response to the report to treat one million more people with mental health problems every year in England by 2021 with an extra £1 billion a year to be made available by 2020/21.

But Ms Berger (pictured), who was granted an urgent question on the subject, bemoaned the fact the cash was announced to the media and not to parliament.

She also questioned whether the money is actually additional as she demanded answers over the timing of the report.

She said the report “describes a system which is ruining some people’s lives”.

“The apparent announcements from the Government include a supposed additional £1 billion-worth of investment by 2020 yet a number of vital questions remain unanswered,” she said.

“Will the minister explain why the report was delayed and published in recess?

“Did ministers or Number 10 have a say over the timing and if so does the minister accept that this level of interference by ministers raises questions over the independence of this report.

“Can the minister confirm that no additional money will be allocated from the Treasury to fund their announcements and that they will be funded from the pre-existing £8 billion that has already been set aside for the NHS by 2020?”

She added: “For the many thousands of people who have been let down by this Government, who are desperate to see a change in how we approach mental health and who are owed a full explanation from the Government on their response to this damning report, I look forward to the minister’s reply.”

But Mr Burt rejected outright any suggestion that ministers were involved in when the task force, which was led by Paul Farmer, the chief executive of Mind, published its report.

He said: “The timing was not up to Government.

“This is an independent report commissioned by the NHS of an independent task force.

“The timing and the content was decided by them.”

Mr Burt said he did have “the occasional” meeting with Mr Farmer, but told him “this is absolutely your report, forget the guff in the papers about who wants what in the report and all that”.

Mr Burt also told the House that the £1 billion figure does represent new funding.

He said: “The Prime Minister announced in January how the £600 million in the Spending Review which is included in the NHS bottom line until 2021 was going to be spent.

“That included the new money for perinatal mental health, for crisis care psychiatric liaison in A&E and also the crisis care community work.

“What was said by the Prime Minister in relation to the task force report represents new money that will be available for the NHS and mental health by 2021, which will be £1 billion extra by 2021 than is spent at the moment.”

The Health Minister said the Government will accept the report’s recommendations as he rejected Ms Berger’s accusation that people are being “let down”.

He said: “I would gently remind you it was this Government that was the first government to set waiting times for physical and mental health, a chance missed by your government when they were in government and set physical waiting time limits.”

However, he did agree that more needs to be done to improve mental health care provision.

“We are absolutely agreed that the state of mental health services cries out for more to be done,” he said.

“We have said that, that is what we are doing.”

Tory Dr Liam Fox (North Somerset) said those who suffered from mental health were often “poor advocates for their own cause” and it was very easy for money to be diverted into other areas of healthcare spending “where others are able to shout louder for that money”.

He asked if it was possible to ring-fence the money for mental healthcare inside the budget NHS “so that it does not become the Cinderella subject in the future that it’s been too often in the past”.

Mr Burt said: “We hope to make sure that that diversion of funds in the past will not happen in the future.”

SNP health spokeswoman Dr Philippa Whitford (Central Ayrshire) welcome the strides made in changing the stigma around mental health.

She said: “I think, though, despite all the great talk, often the money has not gone to the services. Mental health trusts suffered a 2% cut between 2013 and 2015 in their budget. The number of psychiatric nurses went down by 1.4%.”

There was a need, she added, to focus on children, stating that one in 10 were suffering from mental health problems between the age of five and 16 and they were waiting a “very long time to get help”.

She asked: “Are we not going to try and join up our decisions and look at our other policy areas in how people work, how people are supported and the mental health suffering that comes from that?”

Mr Burt said the Government did take its cross departmental responsibilities very seriously, adding: “One of the ways in which we’re going to manage the response to the task force is there will be a cross- governmental team to make sure that departments are joined up.”

Tory chairwoman of the health select committee Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) asked how the Government would “track with greater transparency that this money is spent in the right place”, within social care as well as health.

Mr Burt said it was very important to track spending, adding: “In order to track properly we’ve got to have the information that’s there.”

He added that the Government was improving the data, but it was important to track it in local authority and NHS work.

Labour’s Kevan Jones (North Durham) said it was important to “hard wire” mental health wellbeing into public policy.

He said: “Twice as many people take their own lives than actually are killed on our roads every year. Would the minister also agree with me that it’s now time for a national campaign to address this issue?”

Mr Burt replied: “Included in the recommendations of the task force is a national ambition to reduce by 10% the number of suicides which will be a reduction of some 400 a year.”

Three areas he added were already piloting a “zero suicide ambition strategy” and there was an ongoing review of the national suicide prevention strategy to see how it could be better implemented locally.

Tory Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) spoke about improving the status of those working within mental health care.

Labour’s Joan Ryan (Enfield North) raised the issue of supported housing for people with mental problems, calling on the Government to exempt vulnerable people from the changes in housing benefit.

Lib Dem Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland) called on the Government to commit to putting a timetable for ending the practice of out-of-area treatment.

Mr Burt said the task force recommendation was that out-of-area placement should be eliminated by 2020, adding: “I would like to see it done as soon as is reasonably practicable.”

Tory James Morris, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on mental health (Halesowen and Rowley Regis), said it was a unique opportunity to “drive forward real change in mental health and to deliver real quality change”.

Tory Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) spoke of the stigma attached to mental health and congratulated the writers of Coronation Street for their Steve McDonald depression storyline which he said was “dealt with sensitively and addressed some of the stigmas and stereotypes that come with that”.

Mr Burt said: “I do indeed praise the storyline editors of Coronation Street just as much as EastEnders, (which has) done a remarkable job in relation to perinatal mental health with Stacey’s story over the past few weeks.”