A future vision for mental health

The Actions

The actions that would be needed to make our vision a reality are summarised below. The short term is a year, medium term - 5 years and long term - 10 years.

1. Everybody's business

Short term

• A Cabinet Minister to take oversight of all government departments' activity and spending on mental health and well-being, championing government action to improve mental health.

Medium term

• A new, dedicated Public Service Agreement (PSA) for mental health and well-being, specifying the expected action across government departments and their corresponding local health and social care agencies and organisations.

Long term

• All departments commit to ensuring all their policies align to create the conditions that are conducive to positive mental well-being.
• Legislation is introduced explicitly to prevent discrimination against people with a mental health problem and action to positively promote full participation as equal citizens.

2. Promotion, prevention and early intervention

Short term

• Identify and research priority areas for promotion, prevention and early intervention as part of the New Horizons programme.
• Build the capacity of public services to 'lead by example' as mentally healthy workplaces.
• Evaluate and extend successful elements of the Fit for Work scheme across the country.

Medium term

• Develop a three-tier public mental health strategy including: universal interventions to build resilience in people of all ages; targeted prevention work with at-risk individuals, for example in schools, workplaces, the armed forces, prisons, hospitals and care homes, and for those with complex needs; and early intervention with children and families, including parenting support for pre-school children.
• Complete the roll-out of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme to the whole of England, taking action to extend and adapt coverage to children, older people, people from diverse communities,prisoners, and those with long-term health problems.
• Commit to long-term funding for effective anti-stigma and discrimination activity.

Long term

• Implement the recommendations of the Bradley Report on mental health in the criminal justice system.
• Offer mental health training to all frontline public service professionals such as teachers, the police, physical health professionals and the social care workforce.

3. Quality of life, ambition and hope

Short term

• Urgent action to ensure that National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommended treatments and interventions are universally available.
• Renew for a further three years the PSA 16 targets to increase the proportion of mental health service users in employment and in decent housing.

Medium term

• Everyone with ongoing or severe mental health problems or with complex needs is offered a new 'quality of life' package of support to help them to achieve recovery on their own terms.
• Proactive physical health checks and healthy lifestyle support are provided by GPs to people with severe and enduring mental health problems. The starting point should be equality of access for all communities.
• People using community mental health services and seeking paid employment are offered support based on the best evidence of what works. An alternative package is available to support people wishing to move into further education or voluntary work.
• The Care Quality Commission uses patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) to monitor progress in local services.

Long term

• Government actively supports and incentivises employers to recruit, support and retain people with experience of mental health problems.
• Workforce training and continuing professional development for mental health workers is built around recovery principles as a matter of course.

4. A new relationship between users and services

Short term

• Monitor the quality and availability of independent advocacy services, both for those subject to the Mental Health Act and for others.
• Pilot and build upon a community engagement approach to commissioning for mental health and well-being that involves service users and carers.
• Rigorously pilot and evaluate the benefits of, and potential demand for, personal health budgets for mental health support.
• Improve monitoring and data collection on access and needs.

Medium term

• Increase support and funds available to user-run organisations and experts by experience, to enable them to lead research and shape strategy and policy at the highest levels, and to expand their provision of peer support and direct care services.
• Review the use of and potential to extend advance directives in mental health care.
• Increase the recruitment of people with personal experience of mental distress to work within mental health services, for example in crisis or employment support services.

Long term

• Pool funding streams across support services in health and social care to resource an innovative range of user and carer-driven interventions.
• Carry out a major review of the use and impact of the Mental Health Act.

Read the full report

Download a Future Vision for Mental Health (2,488 KB)

You can also read the press release.

What do you think?

This is the final report of our work. However, we are keen to receive your views and thoughts.

To contact us, email future.vision@nhsconfed.org.