Mental Health Support

Mark Ferguson Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Mark Ferguson (Gateshead Central and Whickham) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd, in my first Westminster Hall contribution. I declare an interest: I was a former national officer for Unison, representing mental health workers and others. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Sojan Joseph) for securing this important debate, timely as it is on World Mental Health Day.

Improving support for mental health is one of the key recommendations of Lord Darzi’s report that the House discussed on Monday—a damning read, yet completely unsurprising to any patient who has engaged with the NHS in recent years. The surge in demand in respect of mental health needs in children and young people is not being met by community-based services, and Lord Darzi’s report found that after years of cuts the number of mental health nurses has only just returned to 2010 levels.

Indeed, the Department of Health and Social Care’s own dataset shows that in the year 2023-24 in my community of Gateshead, 1,745 children and young people aged between nought and 17 years of age were left waiting for first contact with child and adolescent mental health services, having waited at least six months since referral—every single one an individual suffering and part of a family in my community being let down. At the same time, only 60 children and young people in Gateshead received that first contact within six months. Those figures reflect the trend across the country, with 109,000 children and young people under 18 waiting a year or more for first contact. That is why we need more support for children in their communities and schools, but without continuing to overstretch teachers. I welcome the Government’s commitment to roll out mental health councillors in every school and mental health hubs in the community, to cut through the backlog and ensure accessible support.

Lord Darzi’s report identifies a worrying normalisation of long waiting lists. I am in no doubt about the brilliant NHS staff in Gateshead, and elsewhere across our country, who work tirelessly day in, day out—something I know from personal experience. It is not the fault of mental health workers, nurses or GPs but, unfortunately, that of a decade of austerity and the top-down reorganisation of our NHS. To quote Laura Bunt, chief executive of the charity YoungMinds:

“Lord Darzi’s review confirms what we know already–that young people and their mental health have been severely let down by the system there to support them.”

It is our opportunity and responsibility to put that right.

--- Later in debate ---

[Helena Dollimore (Hastings and Rye) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Sojan Joseph) for securing this important debate on such an important issue. I speak for many when I say that we are lucky to have his experience in the House; he has such expertise in mental health. We are all here because for too long mental health has not been given the same focus as physical health. It has not been given the same funding or the right focus, and there has been far too much stigma in talking about it.

In my Hastings and Rye constituency, too many children and young people are waiting far too long for mental health support. That is why I am really pleased to see this Labour Government’s focus on children’s mental health and cutting NHS waiting lists, putting more mental health specialists into schools in particular, and hiring 8,500 mental health specialists into our NHS to cut waiting lists.

I recently attended a memorial for Phoebe, who sadly took her own life in Hastings this July. Phoebe was aged just 14. She had been on a child and adolescent mental health services waiting list since January, and she never got the support she needed. She never got that appointment with CAMHS. Her mum Tamzin and her whole family are now showing amazing courage and amazing strength in channelling this tragedy and their grief into campaigning to make sure that this never happens to any child again, and that we get more focus on children and young people’s mental health.

I thank all the charities that are working on this issue in all our constituencies, and I thank all the mental health workers who work so hard to provide the support that is needed. In my Hastings and Rye constituency, Eggtooth is a local mental health charity that provides vital support and early intervention for around 250 children in Hastings and Rother a year. I have been contacted by many parents and healthcare professionals who are extremely concerned to hear that the funding for Eggtooth is now under threat from the local NHS integrated care board.

[Mark Ferguson]

Does my hon. Friend agree that charities in her constituency, in mine and in so many others provide the valuable resource that helps us to deal with the crisis in CAMHS?

[Helena Dollimore]

Absolutely. I thank my hon. Friend for that important point recognising the important contribution that so many charities and staff make.

I am extremely concerned to hear that Eggtooth’s funding is now at risk and I wish to share with Members some of the views of local healthcare professionals about the importance of the service. A local doctor says:

“The withdrawal of Eggtooth from children’s mental health services in Sussex would leave a profound gap in support for vulnerable young people.”

A local paediatric nurse says:

“I have stories to tell which I cannot share where children and young people have been helped…I worked in acute emergency settings and safeguarding previously and often saw the outcomes of no intervention.”

That nurse makes a vital point about the importance of early intervention, as have many Members. We know that to intervene early is better for the young person, and we know it will cost the taxpayer less. To give an example, the support that Eggtooth provides costs around £520 per child. By contrast, a CAMHS referral costs almost £2,500, and an A&E intervention, should that be needed, costs even more. I urge the integrated care board to reconsider the decision.

I strongly welcome the Labour Government’s commitment to cut NHS waiting lists, cut mental health waiting lists and focus on early intervention, particularly in schools, where we need it the most. It is on all of us in this House to keep alive the memory of Phoebe and that of all those who have lost their lives to suicide.