Mental Health Services

Lord Prior of Brampton Excerpts

Monday 19th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Patel of Bradford]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they will improve mental health services, as outlined during Prime Minister’s Questions on 16 September (HC Deb, col 1039).

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Prior of Brampton)]

My Lords, the Government are committed to putting mental health on a par with physical health. We invested more than £120 million to introduce the first waiting times standards for mental health services from April 2015. We have expanded access to psychological therapies. Our crisis care concordat has ensured that we have halved the number of cases of people going through a mental health crisis being held in police cells.

[Lord Patel of Bradford (Lab)]

The Minister gave three significant areas of development. First, on the investment to introduce the first waiting times standards for mental health services from April 2015, will the Minister say what the results of the waiting times standards have been in the first quarter, from April to June? Secondly, he mentioned the expansion of IAPT services, but as I understand it there is no ring-fencing for IAPT services. What evidence and assurance can the Minister provide that these services are being provided across the country, especially for children and young people?

Finally, the Minister mentioned the excellent crisis care concordat, which says that we have halved the number of people in crisis being held in a police station. He will be aware that just this June the CQC report said that people in mental health crises, even those who are suicidal, are not getting the care that they need in emergency situations. What assurances and steps are the Government taking to deliver care to those people in an emergency situation?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, very briefly on those three points, we will have the waiting time results for IAPT tomorrow. I will publish them in the Library and write to the noble Lord. On the ring-fencing point, the IAPT part of the £150 million extra spending on CAMHS is not ring-fenced, but the £150 million is in total. We will wait to see the results on how effective the IAPT spending is before we come to a final decision on how much should be spent on IAPT and on other parts of the care budget. On the noble Lord’s third point, the CQC published its report, Right Here, Right Now, some six months ago. It found that things were getting better, but there was still far too much variation. By using that report and encouraging local crisis care concordat teams, we hope to address that variation.

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield (LD)]

My Lords, given the current paucity of mental health services in meeting rising demand, will the Minister say what steps the Government are taking to ensure that money earmarked for mental health services is spent on mental health by clinical commissioning groups?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

It is too early. I cannot give the noble Baroness specific figures for last year’s spending, but we believe that they will show an increase of some £300 million over the year before. We have made it very clear to NHS England in the mandate that we expect spending on mental health services to increase this year and that every CCG in the country will see a real-terms increase in mental health spending compared with the previous year.

[Lord Winston (Lab)]

My Lords, we are very grateful that money is being spent on waiting times, but will the Minister be kind enough to comment on a particular situation that occurred just a few weeks ago? The husband of a colleague of mine had a severe manic episode and was in a hospital casualty department for the best part of the day and the whole night, most of the time not being seen. He waited for two days before a bed could be found, not at that hospital, nor at his local mental hospital. Eventually, a bed was found some distance away. Does the Minister feel that that is satisfactory?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

The noble Lord makes a very good point. It is totally unsatisfactory that beds are not available for people suffering a severe mental health crisis. However, looking at the research done by the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, it is not the number of beds that is a problem, but the use of the beds we currently have. Far too many people still in in-patient beds could be treated outside. The answer is not more beds, but using the beds we have more effectively. I completely agree with the noble Lord. What he described I have seen myself. It is totally unsatisfactory.

[Baroness Fookes (Con)]

My Lords, will my noble friend look very closely at mental health provision in prisons, where a disproportionate number of people have mental health problems? This is a matter of many years’ standing.

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

The noble Baroness makes a very strong point that people with mental health problems who are in prison should be entitled to exactly the same care as people who are not in prison, and the extent to which that is not the case should be addressed. It is an issue that I will certainly take up outside the House.

[The Earl of Sandwich (CB)]

My Lords, I am sure the Minister knows about the ill effects of many very common prescribed drugs, which can contribute to mental illness. I have experience of that in my own family. However, is he also aware that there are no significant government services for those mental health patients? Will he follow the lead of the BMA, which is preparing a document right now on that subject?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I am not aware of the report being prepared by the BMA but I will certainly be very interested in seeing it, reading it and discussing it with it.

[Lord Bradley (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare my health interests. Although I welcome the ban on the use of police cells as places of safety for children under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act by July 2016, barely nine months away, does the Minister believe that the £50 million investment in health-based places of safety will be sufficient to achieve a similar ban on the use of police cells for adults and significantly reduce the thousands of adults who end up in accident and emergency departments each year under Section 136 at a time of severe mental crisis?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

The noble Lord makes a very good point. Treating people in the right place is fundamental to any notion that we have of parity of esteem. He recognises the successful work that has been done with children, which we are hoping to replicate with adults. As part of the increased spending on mental health, we are also investing £30 million in liaison services in A&E departments, which is very important. A&E departments are not an appropriate place for people with a severe mental health crisis. Certainly, the evidence from Right Here, Right Now, by the CQC, indicates that people with such a condition are often treated extremely badly in A&E departments.