Ian Hulatt: Will the money tree grow another branch for mental health service reform?

Government plans to create thousands of new mental health nursing posts are welcome but questions remain over where the extra staff and funding will come from, says mental health expert Ian Hulatt

It would be churlish in the extreme to appear unimpressed by the government’s announcement of plans to increase staffing numbers in mental health services.

For too long, workforce planning seems to have belonged in the ‘too difficult to do’ box, and my encounters with the efforts made seem to be a sophisticated lifting of a wet finger in the breeze.

Plans announced by the Department of Health to create 21,000 new posts in England by 2021, including nurses, address some fundamental aspects of mental health services that