Our policy calls for the new government

We have made huge progress in improving physical health in this century and the last. For example, child mortality and deaths from communicable diseases have fallen sharply in most of the world.

But mental health is going in the wrong direction. Levels of poor mental health are enormous and rising. There are an estimated 1.2 million people on NHS waiting lists in England¹, and 1 in 4 people experience a diagnosable mental illness in a given year.²

The rise in mental health problems among young people is particularly concerning: In 2017, the proportion of young people (17- to 19-year-olds) with a probable mental disorder was estimated at 10%, but by 2022, following the pandemic, this rose to 26%.³

We know that the prevention of many mental health problems is possible.

The evidence is clear that it is the places and circumstances in which people are born, grow, study, live and work that have a powerful influence on their mental health.⁴ And there are well evidenced programmes in communities like anti-bullying and parenting programmes, that we know are effective. 

We need to tackle mental health problems not only because of the distress they cause, but as part of making sure we have a good society and a strong economy; mental health problems have an economic and social cost of at least £118bn.⁵

There is very limited funding for measures which improve the population’s mental health.

The public health grant, which should be used by local authorities to fund preventative interventions including public mental health interventions, has seen a £1bn real-terms cut since 2015.⁷

This cut needs to be reversed, but that will not be enough on its own. Currently, only a tiny fraction of the grant is spent on programmes specifically focused on mental health.

We need dedicated new funding for public mental health interventions. We know that these will deliver benefits for both people’s mental health and the economy in the future. But government systems do not always take into account the future benefits of such investment. 

For this reason, we need a fundamental change in how the Treasury conceives of investment. One way of making this change would be to have a specific funding stream for preventative work, in addition to the existing categories of ‘capital’ and ‘revenue’ spend.⁸

The UK parliament and government also must provide an adequate settlement to devolved governments so that they can undertake these preventative actions to support mental health.

• We are calling for all MPs to do everything they can to support a mentally healthier society, in the ways we’ve outlined above. They should use their role in their constituency as well as within their parties to promote effective work to support people’s mental health both locally and nationally
• The recommendations set out here are unlikely to be successful unless they are co-ordinated through a detailed long-term, funded plan. We need a plan which includes all government departments, to make sure that everything possible is being done to improve the population’s mental health. Departments with a particularly important role in supporting the mental health of the population include the Department for Work and Pensions, the Home Office and Education. All MPs have a role to push for support for a comprehensive mental health plan within their parties.