Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department plans to take to support recommendation 17 of the Mental Health Taskforce report of February 2016, on 24/7 access to mental health services by 2020-21.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department welcomed the publication of the independent Mental Health Taskforce report and we are working with our delivery partners to develop a programme of work to embed its recommendations in our policies. We will provide further details in the summer.
To support this programme, we announced in January that an additional £1 billion investment will help to transform mental health services by 2020. This investment includes over £400 million for crisis resolution and home treatment teams to deliver 24/7 treatment in communities and homes as a safe and effective alternative to hospitals and £247 million for liaison mental health services in every hospital emergency department.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to ensure all frontline NHS staff are trained in suicide prevention; and whether such training will be compulsory.
Answered by Ben Gummer
It is the responsibility of the professional regulators to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricula to ensure newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. It is the responsibility of employers to ensure staff receive appropriate training to deliver high quality healthcare. This includes training in suicide prevention. There are no plans to make it compulsory.