Health: Adult Psychiatric Care

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Excerpts

Monday 22nd February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

No, it is not very simple, or at least it is not simple to me; but then I perhaps have a smaller brain than the noble Lord opposite. It is certainly additional to the £1.5 billion for children and young people. I cannot tell the noble Lord now, without fear of making a mistake, whether it will be £1 billion every year from 2016-17 to 2021. It is certainly £1 billion in 2021. If it is all right, I will write to the noble Lord to confirm and clarify that.

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)]

How do the Government intend to monitor the efficacy of this investment, and against what performance indicators will this investment be audited?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, that is a very hard question to answer. The talking therapies, for example, seem to be effective in about 50% of the cases, and whether they are effective is clearly a clinical decision. As for other standards, we tend to rely, as the noble Baroness will know, on proxies such as waiting times and the four-hour standard, which the noble Lord recommended in his report. We are considering the introduction of a four-hour waiting-time standard for people suffering from psychotic problems, in the same way as we have for physical health.