Member

When I spoke to a senior NHS mental health leader recently, he told me that, through community services, the NHS already knows nearly everyone who gets into a mental health crisis or ends up getting sectioned and detained in a mental health in-patient bed. Improving mental health community services is key to improving the mental health of the nation, as is ensuring that resources for mental health are used appropriately. The clinically led review of mental health standards in 2022 under the last Government recommended a four-week access standard for mental health services, yet the current average wait is more like six weeks. As this legislation is operationalised, I would like to see work on how to bring down those waits. Would the Minister reflect on that in his speech?