Government plans to reform 'outdated' laws with a '21st Century' Mental Health Act have been welcomed by NHS trust leaders.

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive, NHS Providers, said: 

"It’s great to see long-awaited steps being taken to modernise mental health laws and focus on improving mental health services.

"As well as Mental Health Act reform much more is needed to make sure that people everywhere can get high-quality mental health services when they need help.

"Almost two million people – many more than in the pandemic – were in contact with NHS mental health services in August 2024 and demand keeps growing.

"We must improve mental health provision, especially for children and young people, and ensure that mental health gets as much attention as physical health – as well as focus on tackling race inequality and the care deficit for people with a learning disability and autistic people to ensure that everyone is treated in the right place at the right time with dignity and respect.

"Lord Darzi’s review of the NHS highlights that there has been a surge, particularly among children and young people, in mental health needs, a fundamental problem in distribution of resources between mental and physical health​ services and that long waits have become ‘normalised’.

"Stretched NHS mental health services are under pressure like never before with record demand continuing to far outstrip capacity but trust leaders and their teams continue to pull out all the stops to see as many people as quickly as possible.

"Trusts are really worried about the amount of unmet need out there. NHS mental health services need more resources and staff to improve how and where people access high-quality care. It’s vital too that wider public services such as councils and schools get the funding they require to make sure that people of all ages and backgrounds get the wider care and support they need."