In his statement on mental health expected spend for 2025-26 in his House of Commons yesterday (28th March 2025), secretary of state for health and social care, Wes Streeting, confirmed that the share of NHS spending on mental health fell in 2024-25 and is set to fall further in 2025-26.
Following a clause in the Health and Care Act 2022 that introduced a requirement for the government to publish an annual statement setting out expectation for NHS mental health services spending, Mr Streeting’s statement was the third to be delivered in the House of Commons.
The secretary of state for health and social care said he is expecting to meet the mental health investment standard for the coming year.
The Darzi investigation has highlight that there wrecked too many targets for the NHS to achieve, which has led to giving systems greater control and flexibility over how funding is deployed to best meet the needs of the local population.
Although Mr Streeting asserts all Integrated Care Boards to achieve the Mental Health Investment Standard (MHIS) in 2025-26, they will receive a smaller share of NHS spending.
In the financial year 2024-25, the NHS spending £14.9 on mental health across all integrated care boards, with real terms spending on mental health in 2024-25 forecasted to be £695 million higher than in 2023-24.
In 2025-26, mental health spending is set to be around £15.6 billion, which is an uplift of £320 million in real terms to the previous financial year. However, this is 0.07 per cent less of the budget that it was before.
In 2024-25, mental health took up 8.78 per cent of the recurrent NHS baseline (£170.2 billion), which amounts to £14.9 billion spent. In 2025-26, 8.71 per cent of funds are to go towards mental health services. That is £15.6 billion of a £179.4 recurrent NHS baseline.
Speaking on the news, Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “It’s deeply disappointing that the share of NHS spending on mental health is set to fall next year at a time of soaring demand for services.
“It’s time to give mental health the priority it deserves. For years national support and resources for mental health services have lagged far behind what is given to physical health. Lord Darzi highlighted in his recent report to government that mental health accounts for more than 20 per cent of the disease burden but less than ten per cent of NHS expenditure.
“Despite seeing record numbers of people, mental health services are experiencing huge increases in demand — considerably higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic — particularly for services like children and young people’s ADHD and autism assessment services. Nobody in the NHS wants mental health patients to wait a moment longer than they have to and trust leaders and staff are doing everything they can to see patients as quickly as possible, in the face of extreme pressure and significant challenges.”
