Current cash envelope not enough to deal with covid aftermath, says CEO

Caroline Donovan, chief executive of Lancashire and South Cumbria Care Trust, believes the sector will need more than the £2.3bn real terms uplift outlines in the NHS long-term plan.

She told HSJ: “The narrative needs to be that we need more funding for mental health. It’s not just people who have been shielding, it is bereavement support, vulnerable people in our society and NHS staff who have experienced significant trauma. For people to be able to get back to any kind of normality, there’s such significant mental health support needed.”

When asked if additional funds would be required to the £2.3bn, she said “definitely”.

NHS Provider’s deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery has also warned of an expected increase in demand, as well as the poor physical condition of many mental health facilities. She added: “We are concerned the current funding announcements are unlikely to be enough.”

It comes after the Institute of Fiscal Studies published its annual report on mental health need, which found a huge deterioration in public mental health “of a magnitude unlike anything we have seen in recent years.”

In Lancashire and South Cumbria, Ms Donovan said the trust and its integrated care system partners had agreed to fund a “psychological well-being hub” for staff and patients, specifically focused on supporting post-pandemic needs.

The hub will signpost people to support services which exist already, offer workplace trauma support for NHS and blue light staff, and specialist psychological care for people with complex needs such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The service will first be open to blue light, NHS and health and social care staff and the trust said it is hoping to also offer it to care homes, local authorities and social care.

The trust has also moved all of its community mental health teams and community crisis teams to a seven-day service and has opened mental health urgent assessment centres in each of the five surrounding acute emergency departments.

Variation in funding for children at commissioner level is also a concern, she said: “Whilst I absolutely applaud the national plan for children I am concerned we’ve still got a real postcode lottery for children and young people with real pockets of underfunding of those services.”

Last month, national clinical director for mental health, Tim Kendell, warned children were “being hit hard” by the lockdown.

HSJ asked NHS England and NHS Improvement about the potential for further funding uplifts for the sector, but has not yet had a response.

In a bulletin sent to trusts last month, Claire Murdoch, the national director for mental health, said there was “consensus that there will be an increase in demand” and modelling was taking place over the summer to assess this.

She said current plans to improve services would remain, but added: “We anticipate there may be a shift of emphasis with some resequencing, as we consider the covid-19 context and expected needs of the population.”