Mental Health Services

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Thursday 28th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, this year NHS England has chosen primary care, cancer and antibiotic prescribing to be the three key parts of the national quality scheme but, as the noble Baroness has said, 30% is determined locally, of which 17 indicators are related to mental health. NHS England proposes to include a mental health indicator in its national scheme in 2017-18. The point about the national schemes is to provide incentives and they will change from one year to another. If they are the same every year, they will cease to be incentives.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister will know that the general record on mental health has been very poor over the past few years. We are far away from parity of esteem; indeed the National Audit Office has commented on this. There is widespread concern within the circles involved in mental health services that, despite what Ministers say, the NHS itself and NHS England are not committed to parity of esteem. Leaving mental health out of the national priorities sends a signal to the NHS that, despite what Ministers say, in the end it is not important. I wonder whether the Government would reconsider this issue and give new instructions to NHS England on it.

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, I find it hard to believe that anyone can think that mental health is not a key priority for this Government, given that we have promised to spend another £1.4 billion on children and young people’s mental health and a further £1 billion a year on adult mental health, along with accepting the findings of the Farmer report in full. I assure the House that mental health remains an absolute priority for the Government.