NHS England announced today that an extra £25m will be allocated to improving children and young people’s mental health services for 2016/17.
This new funding is in addition to the £149m committed in budget announcements for 2016/17 and has been earmarked to reduce waiting times for access to treatment. In order to secure release of the additional £25m, CCGs will be expected to detail how they plan to reduce average waiting times by March 2017.
Implementing the Five Year Forward View published this summer by NHS England sets out priority objectives to improve CYP mental health services by 2020/21. These objectives include increasing access to 70,000 more children and young people each year, and ensuring that 95% of those with eating disorders receive treatment within one week for urgent cases, and up to four weeks for routine cases. Funding pledged to support these objectives rises to £1bn a year by 2020/21. The additional funding will go a long way in helping services reduce their waiting times, and is one of several recent announcements demonstrating NHS England’s commitment to mental health.
For more detail on the recommendations made for CYP services in the Five Year Forward View you can read our blog here.
