Posted 09 February 2023 - 15:33
Posted 09 February 2023 - 15:33
News
Lack of nurses stymies efforts to improve mental health services
Millions left struggling to access mental health support, with lack of staff the biggest barrier, says report
Millions left struggling to access mental health support, with lack of staff the biggest barrier, says report
Nurse staffing shortages continue to hamper efforts to improve mental health services in England, with millions struggling to access the support they need, according to a report.
The National Audit Office (NAO) report found services were under ongoing and increasing pressure with many people – including vulnerable children and adolescents – facing lengthy waits for treatment.
The pandemic has affected performance but a lack of staff – especially nurses, doctors and psychologists – remains the biggest barrier to improving and expanding services, the report suggests. While the mental health workforce has grown overall, the report shows the number of nurses has not increased in line with plans to improve provision.
Survey of mental health trusts shows many have difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff
NHS England and Health Education England had estimated that the nursing workforce would need to increase by 16% in the six years to 2021-22 but numbers grew by just 9% over that period.
A survey of mental health trusts carried out for the report found 31 out of 33 that took part reported great difficulty in recruiting staff while about half had big problems with retention.
The NAO said the government and NHS England needed to demonstrate a firmer grip on challenges within the sector and should publish a longer-term mental health workforce recruitment and retention strategy complete with a costed plan.
The RCN said the report demonstrated the need for urgent investment in staff and services, especially community mental health services and primary care.
Report highlights the need for much greater investment in staffing, says RCN
RCN professional lead for mental health nursing Stephen Jones said: ‘Like the rest of nursing, mental health nursing is in the grip of an acute workforce crisis and this report highlights the need for much greater investment in staffing.’
NHS England said the health service was providing mental health support to more than 4.5 million people ‘backed by the largest mental health workforce in NHS history’.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has committed to spending an additional £2.3 billion on mental health services by 2023-24 with the aim of recruiting an extra 27,000 mental health professionals.
A DHSC spokesperson said: ‘We also provided an additional £500 million for 2021/22, to accelerate our NHS mental health expansion plans and to target groups whose mental health have been most affected by the pandemic.’
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