NHS England has launched the first stage of new programme to improve young people’s mental health services, allocating £30 m in funding to Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to improve eating disorder services, the goal being that 95 per cent of young patients with such a disorder should be seen within four weeks, or one week for urgent cases, by 2020.
The funding will be used to improve community-based eating disorder (ED) services so patients are helped earlier and fewer need inpatient care. The funding will be recurrent for five years as part of the Autumn statement announcement in 2014, and is in addition to the £1.25 bn pledged in the March 2015 budget for CAMHS, which was also allocated over the next five years.
Dr Martin McShane, national clinical director for Long Term Conditions at NHS England (pictured), said: “The number of children and young people with an eating disorder is rising, and it is right that the Government has made this a priority and that we now have a clear waiting time standard. It is clinically proven that patients recover most quickly when we treat them as early, and as close to home, as possible. By prioritising our focus on doing this we can minimise the number of young people who end up needing more specialised inpatient care.”
NHS England has issued guidance to CCGs on submitting their Local Transformation Plans (LTPs) to improve mental healthcare for children and young people, including how they will develop eating disorder services. This year the organisation will spend an extra £133 m on improving children and young people’s mental health, in addition to current local CAMHS budgets, and the £30 m for eating disorders. A further £9m will be spent by Health Education England.
CCGs will receive £75 m to improve local services, while £58 m will fund expansion of the Children and Young People's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP IAPT) programme, improvements to perinatal mental healthcare, investment in inpatient services for children and young people, building of workforce capability, and support innovation and development of online support. Of this, £2.5m of this will support the mental health needs of children with learning disabilities and those in the youth justice system.
Dr Jacqueline Cornish, NHS England national clinical director for Children and Young People, said: “We are on the brink of a new dawn for young people’s mental health and these are the first steps towards a new and more secure place with a brighter and more hopeful future. It is absolutely apparent, and something endorsed by young people themselves, that more of the same is simply not an option.
“Unless we make real changes across the whole system, opportunities to build resilience promote good mental health, and intervene early when problems first arise, will continue to be missed, and the opportunity to build a stronger youth for future generations lost.”