Mental Health Trusts Back New NHS Waiting Time Targets to Improve Patient Access
Leaders of England’s mental health trusts have signed up to a fresh set of performance and waiting time goals agreed with NHS England, in a move intended to speed up patient access and give the sector firmer footing when arguing for funding and priority in future.
The deal, confirmed this week and referred to across the sector as a set of “stretch targets,” is being seen as a bid by mental health leaders to win the same level of scrutiny and public accountability that has long applied to acute and elective hospital care.
The new measures come as demand for mental health support continues to grow. More than 1.7 million people are currently waiting to access mental health services in England, with many patients facing lengthy delays before receiving treatment.
Children and young people remain among those most affected.
Recent NHS data shows that around 70% wait longer than four weeks to begin receiving support, while more than 90,000 under-18s have been waiting for over two years from referral before their first meaningful contact with specialist community mental health services.
Unlike many physical health services, mental health care has historically operated without comprehensive national waiting time standards. Although proposals for national standards covering children’s community mental health services were consulted on several years ago and received broad support, they have yet to be introduced.
Under the new agreement, trusts will work towards delivering faster access to care, with reducing waiting times for children and young people identified as one of the highest priorities. NHS England will monitor performance against the agreed measures, introducing a level of accountability more closely aligned with that used for elective care and cancer services.
Mental health leaders have welcomed the development, describing it as an important opportunity to improve consistency across the country while providing greater transparency for patients and families.
Jinjer Kandola said the introduction of the targets was a positive step and expressed hope that patients and their families would experience tangible improvements in the quality and timeliness of care.
Similarly, Andy Bell said the move was encouraging but argued that access and waiting time standards should become a routine expectation across both children’s and adult mental health services, bringing mental health closer to parity with physical healthcare.
The reforms also arrive at a time when NHS organisations are under increasing pressure to demonstrate improvements in patient outcomes alongside growing investment. Mental health spending is expected to reach approximately £16.1 billion during the current financial year, yet providers have frequently argued that the sector has lacked the same visibility afforded to hospital waiting lists and other headline NHS performance measures.
Despite the optimism surrounding the agreement, trust leaders acknowledge that achieving the new targets will be challenging. Workforce shortages continue to affect both community and inpatient mental health services, while recruitment and retention difficulties remain significant barriers to expanding capacity.
Reducing the use of out-of-area placements, where patients receive treatment away from their local communities because of limited bed availability, also remains a major priority. Progress in this area has proved difficult despite longstanding national ambitions to minimise their use.
Assistant director of the NHS Alliance’s mental health network, Alex Stewart, said:
“This is great news, and we know our members have been closely engaged in this improvement work.
“We have been working closely with them to make the case for mental health to have the same accountability and visibility for waiting times as the hospital sector.
“The agreement of new mental health “stretch targets” is a significant step in the right direction and shows the dedication of the mental health sector to reduce variation and improve services, in a context of rising demand and severe financial pressures.”
“A focus on access for children and young people’s mental health support within four weeks is very welcome. Some members are already hitting 100% on this – we know it can be done.
“It is also good to see the additional focus on out of area placements and 12-hour breaches in emergency departments.”
The introduction of the new performance framework is widely seen as an important milestone in the ongoing effort to achieve parity between mental and physical healthcare. However, many within the sector caution that lasting improvements will depend not only on clear performance expectations but also on sustained investment in staffing, infrastructure and community services capable of meeting rising demand.
