PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(3 December 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of NHS funding has been allocated to mental health services in each year since 2015; and whether this funding met the NHS mental health investment standard.

Asked by:
Dr Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat)

The following table shows the recurrent National Health Service baseline, the total forecast mental health spend, and the proportion of NHS funding forecasted to be allocated to mental health services, which is only available in the format required under section 3(2) of the Health and Care Act 2022 from 2022/23 to 2024/25:

	2022/23	2023/24	2024/25
Recurrent NHS baseline	£142,400,000,000	£154,700,000,000	£164,000,000,000
Total forecast mental health spend	£12,600,000,000	£13,900,000,000	£14,800,000,000
Mental health share of recurrent baseline	8.87%	9%	9.01%

Source: Department of Health and Social Care Written Ministerial Statements.

The forecast figures for mental health spend are different from those in the NHS Mental Health Dashboard, which also includes spend on learning disabilities and dementia. The dashboard also compares integrated care board (ICB) mental health spend to ICB allocations, whereas the figures above compare projected total mental health spend to the recurrent NHS Mandate, which includes spending across ICBs, service development funding, and specialised commissioning.

The following table shows the number of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), now integrated care boards (ICBs), meeting the Mental Health Investment Standard (MHIS), each year from 2016/17 to 2023/24:

Year	Number of CCGs, now ICBs, meeting the MHIS
2016/17	177 out of 209 CCGs
2017/18	186 out of 207 CCGs
2018/19	179 out of 195 CCGs
2019/20	181 out of 191 CCGs
2020/21	135 out of 135 CCGs
2021/22	106 out of 106 CCGs
2022/23	41 out of 42 ICBs
2023/24	42 out of 42 ICBs

Source: NHS Mental Health Dashboard, NHS England

Note: between 2020/21 and 2021/22, there was a methodology change in how CCG base allocation was calculated.

Calculation of the MHIS does not include spend on learning disabilities, autism, dementia, and specialised commissioning.

Answered by:
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1 January 1970