10-year Mental Health Plan

Constituents of Norwich North want to know that their National Health Service will take their mental health as seriously as their physical health, particularly when considering the impacts of the pandemic, which has led to record levels of people seeking treatment. 

That is why the Government is calling for evidence to inform a new 10-year mental health plan, so to level up mental health across the country. 

I strongly encourage people of all ages with lived experience of mental health conditions and those who support people with mental ill-health to respond to this 12-week call, which opened on 12th April and will close on 5th July, for evidence to inform both this plan as well as a separate national suicide prevention plan, that will refresh the 2012 plan, seeking views on what can be improved within the current service. 

The call for evidence seeks to build consensus on the priority actions that need to collectively be taken to reduce the number of people who go on to develop mental health conditions, especially for children and young people and communities at greatest risk. It is important that responses are reflective of society and include those from people of all ages and backgrounds, to ensure future services work for all. 

The 10-year plan builds on the NHS Long Term plan and forms part of the government’s wider commitments to ‘build back fairer’, forming a key part of the commitments to address health disparities across the country and to improve the mental wellbeing of the nation by 2030. It simply isn’t right that people are potentially disadvantaged in accessing mental health services due to where they may live. 

As the Health Secretary has stated, ‘while we continue to expand and transform our mental health services under the NHS Long Term Plan to meet rising demand, we know we need to go further. Too many people, particularly our children and young people, do not have the tools and support they need to look after their wellbeing or prevent mental health problems from escalating. We all have a role to play in resetting the way we approach mental health and our new 10-year plan will set an ambitious agenda for where we want the mental health of the nation to be a decade from now.’ 

The plan will also look at how initiatives across government including green social prescribing, online harms and Thriving at Work can work together to ensure people’s daily practical, social and emotional needs are being met, as well as how to fully harness the potential of technology and data to support better mental health, and incentivise the private sector to play its part. Mental health is something all constituents need to take care of, and therefore I believe it is paramount that all sectors of society can play a role in improving it. 

Alongside this are the Government’s welcomed efforts in transforming mental health services in England through an extra £2.3 billion a year. This includes expanding talking therapies to ensure 1.9 million people will be able to access them by the financial year 2023 to 2024, and give an additional 345,000 children access to NHS-funded services or school and college-based support by 2024. Additionally, the Government have also made £500 million available to support the groups most impacted, including children and young people and those with severe mental illness through their mental health recovery action plan.  

Strong mental health services only come from strong financial support, and I am proud that the Government is providing this unprecedented support to tackle the shortcomings of services exposed by the shock of the pandemic. 

With responses from constituents of Norwich North, I am optimistic that a future 10-year mental health plan will transform services for those with mental health conditions or seeking support. Alongside my support as an MP, I believe both the Government and nation have shown the will to drastically improve their mental health only for the better over the next decade.  

As always, if I can help constituents with any matter, please do email me on chloe@choloesmith.org.uk or ring my constituency office on 01603 414756.