My Lords, I once again thank not only noble Lords who spoke in this debate but those who engaged with us throughout the process. As
the noble Baroness, Lady Merron, said, if the role of this House is to improve the Bill, we have learned much. As a relatively new Health Minister, I have learned so much from the various meetings that I have had with noble Lords, not only on this issue but on many others across the health and care spectrum.
I thank noble Lords who have engaged with me personally but also with my officials to make sure that we closed the gaps as much as we could. I am pleased to hear support from your Lordships for the package of amendments that I have brought forward, and I am grateful.
I stress that this package of amendments should be considered alongside the amendment placing a duty on ICBs to have an appropriate skill mix and experience necessary to deliver all their functions—I hope that noble Lords will look at those in that context—as we expect skills pertaining to the delivery of mental health services to be considered when meeting this duty at the ICB level as well as below that at place level. Many noble Lords have discussed the importance of place.
Amendment 184 would require the Government to report on our plans to improve mental health standards. Access to services is at the heart of the mental health commitments in the NHS long-term plan. The department, NHS England and NHS Improvement regularly report performance against existing waiting time standards in mental health, including improving access to psychological therapies services, children and young people’s eating disorder services and people experiencing a first episode of psychosis.
As noble Lords have acknowledged, last week NHS England and NHS Improvement took another step to strengthen mental health standards, publishing a consultation response following the mental health clinically led review of standards consultation. As noble Lords will know, this sought views on the proposed introduction of new measures, including five new waiting time standards, to support our ambitions to ensure that patients have timely access to community mental health care.
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I will now turn to some other points on this and other issues. At this stage, we do not believe that a legislative amendment in this space is needed because of the work under way to move forward on mental health waiting time standards. As I have said, the department, NHS England and NHS Improvement have been looking at this. With the consultation, we hope we will be able to add more.
We acknowledge that no measure is perfect, but the use of first appointments is consistent; they are something that all patients will go through. There are challenges in using measures around ongoing treatment, given that length of treatment varies from case to case, based on different individuals. For example, there might be a good clinical reason for a person to receive periodic support over a number of months or years.
We agree with noble Lords who said that early prevention and intervention are important. For parents and younger children, the Chancellor announced £500 million for early years intervention, which includes £100 million to roll out bespoke parent-infant mental health support. For children and young people, we are
making some progress on rolling out mental health support teams to schools; in fact, we have accelerated rollout to cover about 35% of schools and colleges in England by 2023. We are also introducing new models of care which will give 370,000 adults with serious mental ill health greater choice and control over their care and support them to live well in their communities.
I think a noble Lord asked about spending commitments. The Government are committed via the NHS long-term plan to increase spending on mental health services in real terms by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023-24. For each year of the current spending review period, spend on mental health will increase as a share of the NHS budget. This is in line with our commitment. We are also ensuring that every CCG and ICB—once they are operational, subject to the Bill—meets the mental health investment standard, so that the spending will increase.
We have also committed to investing £300 million over this spending review to eradicate mental health dormitories by 2024-25. In addition, we are investing £150 million in significant improvements in the mental health estate over the course of the spending review. This will include investing in NHS mental health facilities linked to A&E departments, and enhancing patient safety in mental health units.
The Government will continue to work with NHS England and NHS Improvement on the next steps for the proposed mental health access and waiting time standards. I hope that, with the Secretary of State publishing the reports I have outlined, we will be held to account for this. This will include possible initiatives ahead of any formal performance thresholds being set in future.
I hope noble Lords will agree that, given the amount of comprehensive work already under way and the reports my right honourable friend the Secretary of State has committed to publish, a report such as the one outlined in the amendment is unnecessary. So I beg to move the amendment in my name and hope that the noble Baroness will consider not pressing hers.