5YfV for Mental Health: one year on

NHS England has published a report outlining the progress made in the first year of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health | NHS Confederation

Image source: NHS Confederation

The report sets out which areas are beginning to see improved access to care and outlines examples of good local practice in services. It also recognises the ongoing challenges, adding that there is more to do to “make a reality of the aspirations for transformation in mental health services”.

The report concludes by outlining that the infrastructure needed to sustain change has been put in place and in many areas people who use services are beginning to feel the benefits of the new and expanded services on offer. It cautions that this is a long term programme which goes beyond 2020/21, stating that further work will be needed beyond the first five years to continue to expand transformation of mental health services and meet the needs of the whole population.

Finally, the report acknowledges the hard work of staff and finishes by stating that “one year on, there is clear momentum behind this programme nationally and locally: the challenge now is to maintain and build on this to achieve next year and beyond”.

Highlights from year one:

• Over 120,000 more people are expected to receive mental health care and treatment in priority services in 2016/17.
• The Mental Health Investment Standard is planned to be met across England as whole in 2017/18 and 2018/19.
• The first national access standards for mental health treatment have come into effect – with the waiting time targets met.
• A new Mental Health Dashboard has been launched to provide unprecedented transparency of performance against key indicators.
  The first comprehensive all-age mental health workforce strategy has been co-produced for publication in April 2017.

The report also highlights that not all milestones have been met as planned with progress on workforce development taking longer than anticipated due to the complexities of delivering a strategy for such a diverse group of professionals.

Read the full report here