Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of (a) preventative public mental health programmes and (b) clinical services in supporting the delivery of improvements in ambulances, the backlog, care, doctors and dentists.

No specific assessment has been made. In 2017, the former Public Health England published ‘Mental health services: cost-effective commissioning’ to support local government and provide an estimate of the impact of public mental health interventions on the National Health Service, local authorities, families and schools. This guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-services-cost-effective-commissioning

Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to expand mental health services in England to enable a further two million people to access mental health support. We also aim to increase the NHS workforce by an additional 27,000 mental health professionals by 2023/24.

Over the next three years, we are investing £150 million into schemes which address pressures on the local urgent and emergency mental health care pathway, including alternatives to accident and emergency and hospital admission such as crisis houses, safe havens and step-down services. This funding will also be used to launch dedicated mental health ambulances from 2023/24.