Mind responds to Prime Minister’s Plan for Change speech
Today the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer set out his Plan for Change which featured a number of milestones, including on NHS waiting lists, living standards and crime.
In response, Dr Sarah Hughes, Chief Executive of Mind, said:
“The absence of mental health from today’s speech shows the UK government still hasn’t grasped the scale of the crisis. If the government wants to truly deliver on its health and growth missions, addressing the increasing scale and severity of mental health need is crucial.
“While its plan to update the Mental Health Act is welcome and necessary, any attempt at bringing down NHS waiting lists without a proper plan to support the 2 million people on mental health waiting lists is a backward step in bringing parity of esteem between physical and mental health.
“Mental health services are already chronically underfunded, but there was little today to reassure people with mental health problems that mental health budgets will be protected and not raided to finance improvements elsewhere. There is a worrying lack of public commitment from the UK government to the only mechanism we have to protect and improve mental health funding – the Mental Health Investment Standard. Losing this will set us back a decade and have catastrophic consequences for those of us with mental health problems”.
