Barbara Keeley responds to EPI report in to Child Mental Health Improvements

Barbara
Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health, commenting on
the EPI report in to Child Mental Health Improvements, said:

“The
Prime Minister said in January that she wanted to ‘transform the way we deal
with mental health problems right across society’ but the findings in this
report show these were just warm words.

“With
nearly three quarters of Clinical Commissioning Groups failing to meet NHS
England’s improvement standards in children’s mental health, and more than two
thirds of these groups without fully-funded crisis care plans, it is clear that
the Prime Minister’s rhetoric on child mental health is not being matched by
reality.

“The
most worrying part of this report is the increase in the number of young people
being treated on adult mental health wards which shows an abject failure of the
Government to grasp the problems in the mental health system.

“The
Government need to make sure that frontline mental health services get the
money they need rather than using it to balance NHS budgets elsewhere.”