In his first Autumn Statement since May's General Election, Chancellor George Osborne announced an increase in funding for mental health services.
The chancellor said during the spending review delivered to the House of Commons on Wednesday November 25th that an additional £600m of government funding would be invested in this area. The extra money will be focused on improving crisis care and treatments like counselling.
The increased spending on mental health comes alongside an additional £10bn to the NHS every year until 2020. He said the government will deliver £6bn up-front to the NHS next year, to fund NHS chief executive Simon Stevens' five-year forward review.
“Today, we build on that with £600m additional funding – meaning that by 2020 significantly more people will have access to talking therapies, perinatal mental health services, and crisis care,” he said.
He also promised to make £22bn worth of efficiency savings in the health service, and create 10,000 training places for student nurses by making more loans available.