Responding to 10 Year Health Plan

The 10-year health plan sets out important ambitions – but without workforce investment it won’t deliver.

We welcome the priorities set out in the 10-year health plan.

Shifting care into the community with Neighbourhood Health Services, focusing on prevention, and tackling the root causes of ill health are the right areas of focus, especially when it comes to improving mental health services.

Investment in the workforce

However, a plan on paper is not enough.

If this vision is going to become a reality, it must be backed by serious and sustained investment in the workforce. It means treating mental health as equal to physical health – not just in words, but in action.

And it means facing the simple truth: we will not fix healthcare unless we fix social care too.

This is where the plan is falling short.

The upcoming workforce plan is a vital opportunity to give mental health, and the mental health social workers who support it, the recognition and support needed.

Social work matters

We are campaigning for 24,000 more mental health social workers to be added to the mental health workforce, so everyone with mental health needs has access to a social worker.

Only then will the government’s ambitions be achievable and deliver real change for the people who need it most.