Ten-year plan for mental health provides opportunity to shape wider understanding and tackle scale of demand

Responding to the government's call for evidence for a ten-year plan for mental health, Sean Duggan chief executive of the NHS Confederation's Mental Health Network said:

“We have been calling for a cross-government plan for mental health for some time, and given the increasing pressures and scale of demand that mental health services are facing due to the pandemic, this call for evidence is timely.

“This ten-year plan presents an opportunity to shape wider understanding of the determinants of good mental health and ensure institutions and organisations beyond the health sector – including education, the justice system and housing sector – understand and are held accountable for their roles. 

“Health leaders are particularly concerned by the spikes in demand they are seeing in relation to children and young people’s mental health services, where they’re also seeing an increase in the severity of symptoms. They are clear that this challenge needs an adequately resourced plan, just like the NHS currently has for tackling the elective care backlog.

“We will be working with our members to input to this call for evidence and look forward to working with Government on its proposals.”