Mental Health: Expected Spend

Victoria Atkins Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2024 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Victoria Atkins)]

The Health and Care Act 2022 introduced a statutory requirement for the Government to publish an annual statement setting out expectations for NHS mental health services spending. This is to ensure better transparency as part of the Government’s commitment to parity of esteem, ensuring that patients can access services that treat both mental and physical health conditions equally and to the same standard. It also supports the Government’s commitment to uphold the mental health investment standard, which requires that integrated care boards’ spending on mental health grows at least in line with growth in overall recurrent funding allocations.

In January 2023, my predecessor made the first annual statement. Today I am publishing this second annual statement. It should be noted that, owing to the statutory requirement to make this statement before Parliament ahead of the new financial year, the figures for 2024-25 are the best current estimate based on projections that take account of draft planning guidance allocations, which will be published shortly. Figures for 2023-24 are based on month 11 forecast, as full-year spend is not yet available. There are also revised figures for 2022-23 and 2023-24 compared with the first annual statement made in January 2023.

In financial year 2022-23, mental health spending made up 8.87% of all recurrent NHS spending and 41 of 42 integrated care boards met the mental health investment standard. This is compared with our original forecast of 8.90% in January 2023.

In financial year 2023-24, mental health spending is forecast to make up 9.00% of all recurrent NHS spending, and all integrated care boards are expected to meet the mental health investment standard. This is compared with our original forecast of 8.92% in January 2023.

For 2024-25, mental health spending is forecast to make up 9.01% of all recurrent NHS spending, ensuring spending on mental health continues to grow in line with growth in overall recurrent funding allocations.

These encouraging projections, shown below, demonstrate the Government’s continuing commitment to expanding and transforming mental health services across England and to delivering sustained investment in this area across the country, and our ongoing commitment to parity of esteem for mental health.