• The chancellor delivers the 2018 Budget 
• He confirms a £20.5bn funding commitment for the NHS over the next five years
• This includes a minimum extra £2bn a year for mental health services including a new mental health crisis centre
• He announces extra funding for councils to support care for the elderly and those with disabilities
• Private finance initiative (PFI) contracts are to be abolished in future

Responding to the Budget, the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, said:

 “We welcome the commitments made to mental health in the Budget. We were also pleased to hear confirmation from the chancellor of the £20.5 billion increased funding commitment made to the NHS over the next five years, which will underpin the new NHS long-term plan.

The allocated money for mental health sends the right message about the importance of ensuring parity with physical health services.

“The allocated money for mental health sends the right message about the importance of ensuring parity with physical health services. However while this funding is directed at specific new programmes, it is vital that we also see more support for core services for people with severe and long-term mental health problems. And given previous commitments on mental health funding it is particularly important to ensure that, this time, any additional money does actually reach the front line.

“The extra funding for social care will offer more support to local authorities and the NHS. However, despite this, it is clear that total social care funding will still fall well short of what is needed to keep up with extra demand. It’s also vital that the forthcoming Green Paper and the Spending Review provide a long-term, sustainable, resolution for social care funding, rather than forcing local authorities to rely on an endless series of short-term stop-gap solutions. 

It is vital that the forthcoming Green Paper and the Spending Review provide a long-term, sustainable, resolution for social care funding, rather than forcing local authorities to rely on an endless series of short-term stop-gap solutions.

Chris Hopson    

“For the NHS funding settlement to deliver real value, recover performance and deliver integrated health and care, it’s also vital that the forthcoming Spending Review provides the right settlement for public health, training and NHS capital. Prevention, as the health and social care secretary has flagged, must be a priority and trusts need the right buildings and equipment and the right numbers of staff with the right skills to provide outstanding care. These issues all remain unresolved while the budget for them is squeezed.

Prevention, as the health and social care secretary has flagged, must be a priority and trusts need the right buildings and equipment and the right numbers of staff with the right skills to provide outstanding care.

Chris Hopson    

“Whilst we note the chancellor’s announcement on the future of PFI, a number of trusts with particularly onerous existing PFI contracts will need further financial support if they are to meet the prime minister’s stipulation that no NHS organisation should be in financial deficit over the medium term. We will need the forthcoming review of NHS capital spending to set out how trusts can fund big building projects in the future.

“Attention will now turn to the publication of the NHS long-term plan later this year. This will rightly be ambitious, but it must also be realistic about what the service can be expected to deliver, given the competing priorities for resources, the steep and relentless rise in demand for care and the current financial and performance gaps the NHS currently has.”