§ 1. Mrs. Joan Humble (Blackpool, North and Fleetwood)What improvements he proposes to make to the quality and provision of mental health services. [88237]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Mr. John Hutton)The Government are determined to raise both the quality and provision of mental health services. We have already set that in motion by investing significant additional resources in this financial year, and for the next two years, amounting to £700 million, and we have made mental health a clear priority for both the national health service and social services. We have initiated a thorough review of the legislation to underpin the provision of care and treatment, and we are about to publish a national service framework to address unacceptable variations in service delivery.
§ Mrs. HumbleMay I thank my hon. Friend for that reply and welcome the additional resources to be made available for mental health? I welcome also yesterday's announcement of the Nye Bevan award for mental health services in Dewsbury. However, as I am sure my hon. Friend is aware, there are excellent mental health services in other parts of the country. In Blackpool, along the Fylde coast, there have been exciting developments in child and adolescent psychiatry. A new day centre has opened and new family support workers have been appointed.
I wish to draw to my hon. Friend's attention the difficulties that my local community trust is having in recruiting and appointing a new consultant to deal 804 especially with child psychiatric problems. I am well aware that he has inherited from the previous Government a substantial shortfall in trained staff—
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. A question, please.
§ Mrs. HumbleCan my hon. Friend offer me reassurances about the training and recruitment of staff, especially in child psychiatry, which is such an important area?
§ Mr. HuttonI can certainly reassure my hon. Friend about that. I remind the House that the Government have committed £90 million over the next three years to improving the provision of child and adolescent mental health services, which have been neglected in the past and which can play an important role in improving mental health services. My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to some of the problems in recruiting staff in a specialist area. She may be reassured to know, for example, that between 1997 and 1998, there has been a nearly 8 per cent. growth in the number of consultants in the psychiatry specialty group. The numbers in general psychiatry are expected to double from about 150 to 300. We are trying to address these problems. It is important that we succeed in doing so because these services are extremely important.
§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley (South-West Surrey)I think that the Minister will know how strongly I believe that additional priority should be given to mental health services. May I ask him again to look at how funding has affected the home counties? In Surrey, there is no money to recruit or employ people and there have been cuts across the board. At a time when policy soundbites are good, it is particularly dispiriting for those who are involved in the service not to have the wherewithal to embark on the necessary improvements.
Will the Minister take forward the commitment that he gave in an Adjournment debate last week to ascertain what more he could do to help Cruse Bereavement Care? This is a day when prevention will be discussed. It seems that prevention in the area of mental health can be provided by assisting the voluntary organisations that help those undergoing bereavement. There could not be a better organisation than Cruse to do that.
§ Mr. HuttonI can reassure the right hon. Lady. She will know that I am meeting the chief executive of Cruse tomorrow to discuss her concerns and how the Government can better support the provision of bereavement services throughout the country. I remind the right hon. Lady that the £90 million to which I referred represents additional resources for child and adolescent mental health services, which will be distributed fairly throughout the country. I point out again to the right hon. Lady and to other Surrey Members, who raise these issues regularly with me, that both local authority social services and the national health service in Surrey have received real-terms increases in their allocations this year. At some point, the right hon. Lady might begin to acknowledge that fact.
§ Dr. Brian Iddon (Bolton, South-East)In Bolton, mental health providers are being used to train people who are working for the pilot new deal scheme for the disabled. Jointly with the local authority, specialist helpers 805 have been recruited to help people with mental health problems to get a job. Once they have obtained a job, the helpers are there to support them. Does my hon. Friend agree that joint working of this kind is the way forward for the benefit of our citizens?
§ Mr. HuttonI certainly do. My hon. Friend will probably be aware that there are initiatives in the north-west to try to provide better services for people with mental health problems to assist them in getting back into work and in retaining employment. We do not intend to let people with mental health problems slip through the net. We want to provide better services to support them in employment and to help those who fall out of employment.