We’re pleased the Government has pledged to invest in public services, reversing years of chronic underfunding.

Mental health spending commitments

The commitment of £26 million towards new mental health crisis centres to reduce pressure on A&E services, is welcome and we look forward to more information on how this will roll out in due course.

The Government also reinstated its pledge to open Young Futures Hubs with the aim of addressing children and young people’s involvement with violence and crime.

“As members of the Fund the Hubs campaign, we lobbied for these early help hubs to be established, and we urge the government to ensure that the Hubs maintain a mental health approach and provide access to qualified counsellors.” says Mia Edwards, our Parliamentary and Public Affairs Officer.

“We’d have liked to have seen more details of how the Government will deliver on its promise to expand the mental health workforce by 8,500 professionals and to provide every school with access to a mental health professional.

“We hope that these commitments will be realised as part of significant new investment in NHS services, schools and community services.”

Expansion of community care

As part of NHS reform, the Government has also promised to expand community care. We’ll work to ensure our members, many of whom deliver specialised psychological support in community settings, will be an integral part of this expansion.

We also support the Government’s vision for more care to be delivered through Neighbourhood Health Services, where our members already provide critical support.

More money for special educational needs in schools

The Budget included promising investment into schools, with resource spending on the education system in England increasing by £11.2 billion from 2023-24 levels. £1 billion of the increased core schools budget is also allocated for supporting provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities, and an additional focus on improving current poor school attendance is very promising.

Support for people to get back to work

We await with interest further details on the newly introduced ‘Get Britain Working’ project, which includes details of trialling new ways to support people with ill health to get back into work.

We recognise the significant link between poor mental health and work absenteeism. We’ll support the government wherever possible to ensure that working people receive the mental health support they need to boost wellbeing and economic activity.

Concern over missed opportunities

Mia says: “Overall we welcome this budget and appreciate that it demonstrates commendable understanding of the investment needed to rescue public services and infrastructure. This investment is vital to address socioeconomic drivers of mental ill health.

“Although we welcome progress in delivering Young Futures Hubs, we’re concerned that the narrowness of this offer may result in missed opportunities to provide much needed therapeutic support to vulnerable young people. We are keen to engage with Government to maximise this potential.

"We're also deeply concerned about the impact of the increase in Employer's National Insurance Contribution (NIC) for our members in the third sector. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations has highlighted the potentially catastrophic burden this increase places on small charities which are already coping with rising demand for their services at a time of rising costs and a drop-off in funding. Already subsidising public contracts from their limited income, the additional NIC burden presents many organisations with additional, unsustainable costs which will impact staff and clients.

“Moving forward, we know harnessing the expertise and capacity of counsellors and psychotherapists is crucial for the Government to achieve its longer-term commitments: reducing pressure on services, supporting people back into work and education, and paving the way for a healthier, happier nation.”