Who are the Mental Health Taskforce?
- Formed in March 2015, the independent Mental Health Taskforce brought together health care professionals, as well as the people who use the services, to create a Five Year Forward View for Mental Health for the NHS in England.
- They published their report in February 2016.
- The Government welcomed the report and accepted all 58 recommendations, which address everything from funding and those who should spearhead the new incentives, to the relevant educational demands as well as the introduction of independent assessors to ensure the highest standards are maintained.
Government Support
In January 2017, the Prime Minister unveiled further plans to transform mental health support. These include:
Support for schools
- Every secondary school in the country will be offered mental health first aid training and trials to look at how to strengthen the links between schools and local NHS mental health staff.
- There will also be a major thematic review of children and adolescent mental health services across the country, to identify what is working and what it not and a new Green Paper** on children and young people’s mental health.
Support in the workplace
- The Prime Minister appointed experts to lead a review on how best to ensure employees with mental health problems are enabled to perform at their best in the workplace.
- The Government has made progress implementing the recommendations in this report and is now working with partners, including employers, to create a framework for voluntary reporting on mental health and disability.
Community support
- The Government will build on its £15 million investment to provide and promote new models of community–based care such as crisis cafes and community clinics.
- The initial investment led to 88 new places of safety being created and the Government now plans to spend up to a further £15 million to build on this success.
Digital mental health services
- The Government will speed up the delivery of a £67.7 million digital mental health package so that those worried about stress, anxiety or more serious issues can go online, check their symptoms and if needed, access digital therapy immediately.
Righting the injustices those with mental health problems face
- The Department for Health will undertake a formal review of the mental health debt form, working with Money and Mental Health.
- The Government will also support NHS England’s commitment to eliminate inappropriate placements to inpatient beds for children and young people by 2021. This would involve the integration into local pathways through the "Place Basis" scheme which sets out to ensure the locality of care remains but the components are far less clinical and suited to each individual case.