Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Farron Excerpts

Tuesday 17th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I can well understand the hon. Member’s concern and her constituents’ concern. Practice closures are hard on communities wherever they are, but they disproportionately hit rural communities and those that suffer with poor transport connectivity. I would urge her in the first instance to raise the specific local issues with the ICB. However, I reassure her and other right hon. and hon. Members that the needs of rural, coastal and remote communities are very much in our mind—and, crucially, in the 10-year plan—and our thinking about how we build genuine neighbourhood health services in all types of neighbourhood.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

5. What steps his Department plans to take to ensure mental health services are fully staffed in rural areas.

[The Minister for Care (Stephen Kinnock)]

I know this is an important issue for the hon. Member from the meeting we had about it last year. This Government are supporting local providers by recruiting an additional 8,500 mental health workers by the end of this Parliament. We are also expanding NHS talking therapies and piloting six new 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres, including Hope Haven serving Whitehaven and rural Copeland.

[Tim Farron]

I thank the Minister for his reply, but this month the Care Quality Commission found high levels of staff vacancies in the already understaffed psychiatric intensive care units and acute mental health wards in South Cumbria, concluding that this is putting patient safety “at risk”. Yet, worryingly, the ICB in South Cumbria is making additional cuts of £142 million this year, with North Cumbria also making cuts. In the light of that, what is his plan to intervene to ensure that mental health staffing in Cumbria is increased to safe levels?

[Stephen Kinnock]

I thank the hon. Member for that. There is no doubt that the NHS, universities and others need to do more to get students, trainees and qualified doctors and mental health specialists in places where the NHS and patients need them. We will publish a refreshed workforce plan later this year to ensure that the NHS has the right people in the right places to care for patients when they need it.