Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the time taken between a mental health patient being referred for counselling and their first appointment with a specialised mental health counsellor.
The 2014/15 NHS Mandate sets a requirement for NHS England to: “put mental health on a par with physical health, and close the health gap between people with mental health problems and the population as a whole. By March 2015, we expect to make measurable progress towards achieving true parity of esteem where everyone who needs it has timely access to evidence-based services”.
NHS England is currently gathering information about access to and waiting times for adult mental health services around the country, and whether any particular groups of people experience longer waits or poorer access than others. Based on this information, we will then set new national standards that focus on improving access to adult mental health services. These will be introduced starting in 2015.