Liz Twist

The hon. Member makes an important point that could certainly be developed further in another debate. The closure of Papyrus has highlighted the wider financial pressures among suicide prevention and mental health charities across the voluntary sector. That is not new, but Papyrus is an example that has hit hard. Across the country, non-profit organisations are supporting statutory health services without the predictable long-term funding required to keep their doors open. Over recent years, major Government grant programmes for suicide prevention have reached the end of their funding period. The £10 million suicide prevention grant fund for voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations, which supported 79 charities across England, ended in March 2025. It was a one-off fund and the official evaluation of the scheme showed that, while short-term grants funded helpful community projects, the lack of ongoing funding left charities facing sudden financial cliff edges once the grants ended. In addition, the £57 million allocated to local areas through NHS England for suicide prevention came to an end in April 2024. The London-based charity Body and Soul surveyed its young service users. It told me that the short funding cycles threatened specialist staffing, the stable referral routes that they have on offer, and the continuity needed to build trust. Short-term funding incentivises short projects and countable contacts over creating the sustained capacity needed by young people whose difficulties do not resolve to a grant timetable. The north-east based charity If U Care Share, which Members will have heard me speak about before, has raised the precarious nature that short-term funding means for charities trying to create long-term programmes for their communities. I have certainly helped them try to achieve funding in the past.