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A new Health and Social Care Committee report urges the Government not to miss a golden opportunity to dramatically improve England’s mental health services. 

• Read the report (HTML)
• Read the report (PDF)
• Inquiry: Community Mental Health Services
• Health and Social Care Committee

MPs have called for Ministers to continue funding a pilot of six innovative 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres, with a view to opening one in every community.  

The cross-party Committee heard that the new centres, inspired by services in Italy, are offering a one-stop-shop with individualised care and advice services for housing, employment and other issues. 

But the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has not guaranteed funding for the centres beyond April, putting the pilot in jeopardy. The Committee’s report says funding must be extended for a further 12 months. This would allow evaluation of data to see how the centres have improved outcomes for service users, and create an evidence base to enable more centres to be rolled out in towns and cities across the country. 

Another major conclusion of the report is for DHSC to guarantee that spending on mental health services will continue to rise as a proportion of the NHS’s overall budget, and for other funding streams to be ringfenced or provided in longer-term cycles. This would ensure progress continues to be made towards parity of esteem between mental and physical health. 

The new report comes after Claire Murdoch resigned as National Director of Mental Health in September due to concerns that mental health was not being given sufficient investment. 

At the end of 2024 there were 664,412 adults with severe mental illnesses, such as bipolar or schizophrenia, who were accessing support from Community Mental Health Services in England. 

People with severe mental illnesses are more likely to die prematurely from related physical conditions. Between 2021 and 2023, over 130,000 premature deaths were recorded among this demographic in England. 

The report’s main recommendations are summarised further down in this release. 

Comment from the Chair

Health and Social Care Committee Chair Layla Moran MP yesterday said: 

“This report lays bare how an overburdened, poorly designed system is failing too many people and their families. But there is hope. We urge the Government to not shy away from reimagining this broken and fragmented system, and to embrace this golden opportunity to radically improve mental health services. The pilots of 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres are pointing the way and could completely transform the experience of patients and clinicians alike. 

“During our inquiry we heard from people with lived experience of using community mental health services, who had been pushed around from one place to another like a pin ball, their needs not being met. 

“What we heard in our evidence from the 24/7 centres was nothing short of miraculous. DHSC needs to let this pilot run so that the six centres can provide the data the system needs to succeed. But they have been left in limbo with funding unconfirmed beyond April. 

“Ministers need to show leadership and make sure this is followed through. 

“This Government has committed to giving mental health the same attention and focus as physical health but I fear this could be under threat if the Government does not return to principle of increasing the proportion of NHS funding spent on mental health services every year. Last year it fell for the first time since 2018 and is set to fall again this year. I am bitterly disappointed to see confirmation from NHS England that this principle has been abandoned for the next three years. 

“This inquiry was felt keenly by MPs on this Committee who have experienced their own mental health struggles. We are deeply thankful to those with lived experience who gave their time and expertise to help us produce this report.” 

Extend pilot of 24/7 Neighbourhood Services 

The Committee visited the Barnsley Street 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centre in Tower Hamlets, East London, which opened in July. It was the first of six centres to open in England as part of a pilot scheme. Five more centres are in the process of opening in Sheffield, York, Cumbria, Lewisham and east of Birmingham. 

Inspired by a model used in Trieste, Northern Italy, the 24/7 Neighbourhood Centres are part of DHSC’s 10 Year Plan to shift services to local communities, helping to improve access and reduce stigma. They offer individualised care without the need for a referral. The centre in Tower Hamlets has been described as holistic and a one-stop shop, with a range of support with issues including housing, health, social support and employment.  

MPs were told during their visit that initial data suggests reduced inpatient admissions and shorter stays. 

The Committee was told that funding for the centres has not been confirmed beyond April 2026, and that an evaluation of their performance so far is due in the spring. 

Recommendation: The Committee believes there should be a 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centre in every community. It sees these centres as an opportunity to transform the delivery of mental health services and as part of the NHS’s strategic shift towards delivery of care into the community, from hospital settings. The pilot needs funding for an extension by at least a further 12 months beyond April 2026. Data collected over a longer period will enable a robust evaluation of the centres’ performance, which would then empower local commissioners around the country to replicate this pilot in more communities. The Government must show leadership and commit to an extension. 

The Government should develop and publish a roadmap for the national scale-up of the pilot programme.  

‘Parity of esteem’ requires increased share of funding 

Mental health accounts for over 20% of demand for health services but in 2025/26 it is forecast to receive 8.7% of NHS expenditure, or £15.6 billion. 

The spend this year is due to be higher than in 2024/25 (£14.9 billion), but it also means that a smaller proportion of total NHS spending will go on mental health this year than last year – from 8.78% down to 8.71%. 

This reduction also means that 2025/26 will be the first year since 2016/17 that mental health spending hasn’t risen as a proportion of total health spending. It is a contravention of the Mental Health Investment Standard, a policy introduced that year. 

On 17 November, NHS England confirmed that proportional increases will not take place between this year and 2028/29. There will instead be “flat real funding growth”. 

Conclusion: While we recognise the welcome increase in real-terms mental health spend this year, we were disappointed to see the overall share go down. We hope this is a one-off. We want to see the Government make a clear commitment towards parity of esteem between mental and physical health. 

Recommendation: The Mental Health Investment Standard must be retained beyond 2025–26. The Government must confirm whether the Standard will continue, and for how long, by the end of this calendar year to give health service commissioners greater certainty.  

Ringfenced funding for progress 

An important strand of funding for mental health services, from local commissioners, came from the ringfenced Service Development Funding (SDF). But for 2025/26 this funding was no longer ringfenced and was instead provided in general funding for commissioning local health services. This change threatens to undermine the transformation of services and the push towards parity of esteem for mental health, as local commissioners could use this funding for other services. 

Ringfenced SDF has also been crucial to establishing the 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres. 

Conclusion: The loss of dedicated SDF could have a detrimental impact upon the progress of the transformation of services. 

Longer-term funding cycles for certainty 

The Committee heard criticism from Turning Point, Rethink Mental Health and the Association of Mental Health Providers that funding cycles of one or two years had undermined staff retention and stifles the ability for services to innovate. 

Recommendation: DHSC and NHE England should support local commissioners to move away from short-term commissioning cycles to multi-year contracts for voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations that support the delivery of community mental health services. Guidance should also be issued to facilitate this shift. 

Acute workforce shortages 

Workforce shortages are resulting from high turnover, limited career progression, and poor recognition of key roles – particularly mental health social workers. This undermines continuity of care for service users and integration between services. The NHS’s 10 Year Workforce Plan must deliver for the mental health workforce. 

Recommendation: The Government should recognise the important role of mental health social workers by including them in the upcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan. This should include projections for increases to the workforce to ensure that every person with a severe mental illness has a named mental health social worker.  

Improve treatment of ethnic minorities 

The Committee received evidence that people from racialised communities, particularly Black/Black British individuals, face stigma, discrimination, and lack of culturally appropriate or personalised support. The Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 2018 highlighted disproportionate detention rates under the Mental Health Act, higher use of restraint, and poorer access and outcomes for racialised communities. 

Recommendation: The report says that accountability should be improved by embedding the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) — NHS England’s first anti-racism and accountability framework – as a statutory duty. This would also reinforce the Mental Health Bill’s ambition to eliminate disproportionate use of the Mental Health Act among racialised groups.  

Evaluate the Community Mental Health Framework 

The Government published the Framework in 2019, setting out six core principles for improving mental health services, alongside £2.3 billion a year in funding for local commissioners.

The Centre for Mental Health has described the Framework as a “clear and compelling picture” for how local services should work. But evidence suggests significant gaps between its ambition and the reality of its implementation across England. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has described the Framework's implementation as “mixed at best, mostly inadequate”. 

Recommendation: the Government should commission an independent and comprehensive evaluation of how the Community Mental Health Framework has been implemented and its impact. This should be seen as a necessary step in ensuring that the Government and NHS England will deliver on their commitment to integrated, personalised, and coordinated care. Without an evaluation there is a risk that problems persist and that future transformation efforts will lack the insight and learnings needed to succeed in all areas of the country. 

Further information

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