Government must ring-fence mental health funding – Barbara Keeley MP

Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet
Minister for Mental Health, commenting on remarks made to the Health Select
Committee by the Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield, and the CQC Chief
Inspector of Mental Health Services, Dr Paul Lelliott, said:

“The scandal of children being
turned away from mental health treatment because they don’t meet thresholds of
mental ill health is a direct cause of the Tory Government’s failure to protect
mental health budgets.

“Even where children are able to
access services, they can face unacceptably long delays: the CQC recently found
some children waiting 18 months for treatment after referral.

“The Tory Government must
ring-fence mental health funding in the upcoming Budget: anything less will
prove that their pledges to make mental and physical health a priority are just
empty words.”