Mental Health Services: Staff
(asked on 4th September 2017) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what comparative assessment he has made of the level of staffing available for mental health services in (a) York and (b) England.
The Government has recognised the need to enhance the numbers of professional and allied healthcare support staff working in mental health and on the 31 July the Health Education Executive published Stepping forward to 2020/21: The mental health workforce plan for England. The plan identifies approximately 194,000 full time equivalent (fte) people that are substantively employed by the National Health Service in England to care for people who need mental health services.
As at May 2017, figures from NHS Digital show 2,227 fte staff working in the Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and 5,781 fte staff working in the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, both providers, provide mental health services within the York region.
The Mental Health Workforce plan for England sets out how the health service will dramatically increase the number of trained nurses, therapists, psychiatrists, peer support workers and other mental health professionals to deliver the improvements in services and support set out in the NHS’s Five Year Forward View for Mental Health.
The plan envisages that by 2020/21 local areas will need to create 21,000 new posts in priority growth areas. All major specialties will see an expansion in numbers, with the plan targeting areas where there are forecast to be particular shortfalls. The report is available at the following link: