More individuals are accessing NHS mental health care than ever before: a record number of over 2 million people were in contact with services in February 2025, which is over 45% higher compared to pre-pandemic levels. This is in part thanks to new services and higher levels of investment delivered via fully costed programmes for mental health delivery over the last decade, but also due to increasing levels of demand. Trusts continue to work hard to expand services and access to high quality care despite significant staff and resource constraints.
However, there remains significant unmet need and challenges around quality and safety of services. Pressures on services and the complexity and acuity of cases also persist despite ongoing work by the sector to increase access and transform models of care:
- During 2023/24, there were over 30 million contacts delivered by services, which is up 14.4% compared to before the pandemic.
- Detentions under the Mental Health Act increased by over 1,500 over the same period.
- At the last count, 393,040 children and young people were still waiting for treatment from community mental health services, which is a record high and up 19% compared to last year.
- In NHS Providers' autumn 2024 survey of trust leaders, more than 9 out of 10 respondents from mental health trusts said they were worried about their trust’s capacity to meet demand over the next 12 months.
- 41% of people with learning disability and / or autistic people who are in hospital could have their needs met in the community with appropriate support, and half of those in hospital have been there for two years or more.
Addressing these issues will require sustained levels of investment and focus at local and national levels.
The NHS has been asked to focus on a narrower set of priorities in 2025/26 than last year. While narrower, it is welcome that improving access to mental health services, particularly for children and young people, are within the top four priorities for the year ahead. The national priorities and success measures related to mental health, learning disability and autism specifically focus on:
- reducing average length of stay in adult acute beds;
- improving access to children and young people’s services; and
- reducing reliance on inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
To improve services and value for money, all mental health providers will be asked to submit, implement and report against a plan to improve productivity.
There are also a number of specific objectives and targets the NHS was asked to deliver on last year that are not an explicit focus this year, serving as a stark reminder of the difficult decisions and tough trade-offs facing trust leaders. Those objectives which have not been retained nationally this year include:
- increasing access to adult community and perinatal mental health services;
- reducing health and race inequalities;
- improving the quality and safety of inpatient settings; and
- improving the timeliness and quality of mental health services data.
The 10-year health plan, due to be published in the summer, will set priorities for mental health and the health service more broadly over the next decade. The Comprehensive Spending Review is also underway and will conclude in June. Both provide a critical opportunity to secure the funding and focus the sector requires to deliver the sustainable high-quality services over the next decade that individuals, and the wider system and society, need.