The Department of Health has published the latest annual reports on the level of investment in mental health services.

The National Survey of Investment in Adult Mental Health Services provides details of the level of investment in mental health services for working age adults (aged 18-64) in England for 2010/11 and compares it with the reported results in previous years.

The National Survey of Investment In Mental Health Services for Older People provides details of the level of investment in mental health services covering people aged 65 and above, in England for 2010/11 and compares it with previous years from 2006/07.

The working age adult (WAA) mental health analysis provides the following overall key findings:

• Total investment in adult mental health services in 2010/11 (reported investment plus estimated unreported investment) was £6.550 billion or £195.8 per head of weighted working age population.Total investment increased from £6.323 billion in 2009/10 to £6.550 billion which is a 3.6% cash increase and a real increase of 0.7%.
• Since 2001/02, the total investment, after allowing for inflation, has increased by 58.5% in real terms (see Figure 4). At 2010/11 prices, £4.132 billion was spent in 2001/02 and £6.550 billion in 2010/11.
• The percentage of investment reported in direct services (as opposed to overhead or capital costs) is now at its highest recorded level of 81.9% compared to 81.3% in 2009/10.
• Secure and High Dependency services remain the largest single area of spend accounting for 19% of expenditure on direct services.
• The reported investment in the three priority areas (Crisis Resolution, Early Intervention and Assertive Outreach) has changed little in the latest year with a real increase of only £0.6 million between 2009/10 and 2010/11 although it increased by £386.8 million since 2002/03 and 2010/11.
• The activities carried out by the priority teams suggest that more people were treated with little increase in investment over the year (see Figure 9). This implies an increase in productivity.
• Investment in psychological therapies has doubled in real terms since 2007/08.
• There was an increase of 1.38% between 2009/10 and 2010/11 in proportionate spend on the services provided by the non‐statutory sector (24.45% in 2009/10 to 25.74% in 2010/11).

The analysis revealed the following about the investment between SHAs (noting uncertainty about the quality of some SHA data).

• Most SHAs either maintained their investment in real terms or reported modest increases in investment of up to 4.7%. Three reported reduced investment of up to ‐0.8% (East Midlands, East of England and Yorkshire and the Humber).
• London maintained its position of the highest weighted investment per head spending SHA. Weighted investment in adult mental health services in London was £212 per head compared to the national average of £196 per head.
• The amount invested per weighted head varies among SHAs by between 8.0% above, and 9.2% below the national average (£196).

The older adult mental health (OPMH) analysis provides the following overall key findings:

• Total investment in OPMH services in 2010/11 was £2.859 billion or £344.7 per weighted head of population
• Total investment in OPMH mental health services rose by 3.8% from £2.753 billion in 2009/10 to £2.859 billion in 2010/11 in real terms or a cash increase of 6.9%
• 63% of the OPMH services in 2010/11 were commissioned by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and 37% reported commissioned by Local Authorities
• Investment within SHAs varied from a low of £ 261 investment per weighted head to a high of £493

Links

National Survey of Investment in Adult Mental Health Services 2010/11 (PDF). Department of Health, 31 Oct 2011.

National Survey of Investment In Mental Health Services for Older People 2010/11 (PDF). Department of Health, 31 Oct 2011.

Links to reports from previous years are on the Department of Health website.