Mental Health Services

Baroness Newlove Excerpts

Tuesday 19th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell]

My Lords, I completely recognise the noble Lord’s warnings. He rightly warns about the huge pressure of lockdown on people, and rightly mentions the benefits of the arts—particularly social prescribing, of which I am particularly supportive. I pay tribute to the Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care, who has allowed me to bring Tilly, my working cocker spaniel, into the office to provide me and my fellow workers with some kind of support from an animal. I know that canine support is valuable. We are working hard to support the kind of social prescribing of which the noble Lord speaks.

[Baroness Newlove (Con)]

My Lords, this is an interesting area which I was concerned with both in my former role as Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, and personally. As well as viewing mental health services through Covid, we must recognise the risks to pre-existing services, which were an underfunded postcode lottery with not enough qualified professionals. Our front-line workers are now dealing with a pandemic that none of us could envisage. Will the Minister speak to the Secretary of State for Health to ensure sustainable funding for access to mental health services, and that support is given to mental health workers, who will be the front-line workers again? We must ensure that people’s ability to access the services does not just become a tick-box system governed by an algorithm within an app. There has to be sustainable funding for a least five years to invest in the care and support needs of the most vulnerable in society.

[Lord Bethell]

I recognise the insight of my noble friend Lady Newlove, who speaks from experience of these matters. I reassure her that the funding in place from the long-term plan for mental health has been substantial and will support a dramatic change in mental health services. We will be supporting mental health workers who, as my noble friend says, have delivered under difficult circumstances. Their creativity is demonstrated by the introduction of video and other technical facilities to keep mental health services going during the lockdown. I pay tribute to their inventiveness and creativity at this time.