Funding for mental health services for children and young people should be ring fenced, a leading group of commissioners have said, after a BBC investigation found that many trusts were not receiving promised funding.
The £143 million funding was part of a £1.25 billionn investment into children’s mental health services over the five years announced by chancellor George Osborne in the budget in March 2015. NHS England has stated that £75 million of this funding was given to CCGs. However, it has been suggested that some of this money has been siphoned into other services, leading to calls for children’s mental health services to be ring fenced.
‘Despite our commitment to better mental healthcare for young people, it has to be acknowledged that CCGs are dealing with increasingly financially challenging times and a myriad of competing demands on budgets,’ said Dr Phil Moore, chair of the NHSCC Mental Health Commissioners Network. ‘This, combined with the fact that children and young people’s mental healthcare is in desperate need of heavy investment having historically been treated as a ‘Cinderella service’, is why we believe this to be a rare case where funding should be ring-fenced.’
The NHSCC Mental Health Commissioners Network has sent a letter to the Department of Health urging them to ensure that the funding is not used to pay for other services. The government is expected to release a further £250 million of funding to be invested in children’s mental health services in the next year.
‘Despite Government rhetoric and pledges, funding received by mental health services in England has been falling and bureaucracy is slowing its arrival, said Stephan Dalton, chief executive of the Mental Health Network. ‘The slow pace of funding has resulted in a postcode lottery of care that is putting vulnerable people, including children, at risk. Last year the government committed an additional £1.25 billion investment for mental health services for children and young people and we will keep fighting to ensure it reaches the front line.’