Funding is a barrier for successful mental health services

Responding to a report by the Health and Social Care Select Committee on community mental health services, the chief executive of NHS Providers, Daniel Elkeles, said:

"I have seen for myself on several trust visits the extraordinary transformative work that’s being delivered by some community mental health services.

"Innovations such as 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres show what can be done in extending access and convenience.

"We need to scale up successes like these. And the committee is right, we need to move with urgency.

"That was a theme picked up by the prime minister yesterday when he spoke of the need to tackle barriers - including mental health issues - holding people back.

"The committee rightly points out that funding is a barrier to progress.

"We support its call for spending on mental health to continue to rise as a proportion of the NHS’s overall budget and it’s very disappointing that that’s not what we’re seeing."