Greater Manchester mental health service under 'sustained pressure'

Almost 100,000 people use mental health services across Greater Manchester

Mental health services across Greater Manchester are coming under "sustained pressure" due to a £90m shortfall in investment, a watchdog has found.

The city region's Integrated Care Board, which reviews how NHS cash is spent, said mental health provision had levels of investment below the national average.

The board said "fundamental changes" were needed.

Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust said it was making improvements.

The board's findings, reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, come after the trust was issued with a Section 29A warning notice by the Care Quality Commission in April 2022, which deemed it inadequate following an inspection.

A further inspection this July also gave it an overall inadequate rating although there were areas of the service which were upgraded to "requires improvement".

GMMHT has almost 100,000 users, 6,700 staff and more than 8,000 students have used its recovery academy over the last 10 years.

In their report, the board stated that at GMMHT there had been a "£90m under-investment in mental health compared to national averages".

'Fundamental changes'

The report continued: "The trust has a clear understanding of the scale and complexity of the key underlying issues and a commitment to deliver the improvements required within the system.

"We are working to deliver fundamental changes to the safety culture, clinical and corporate governance assurance systems and leadership focus and visibility in the trust.

"It is recognised that significant challenges remain regarding delivery against actions at the pace and scale and the environment is complex."

It said that the trust is continuing to receive support from the NHS England Intensive Support team via the Recovery Support Programme and is aiming to exit the programme by March 2025.

The report added: "The NHS England independent review is due to be published in January 2024 and the trust will respond accordingly to considering the outcome and any recommendations.

"We will continue to work closely with NHS England regional and national teams to deliver against the exit criteria and the undertakings."

The report also noted that demand on the mental health team at Salford Royal, which has the biggest A&E department in GMMHT, "has increased".

Salford Royal has previously been praised by government ministers for good practice

Recruitment of social workers in the community mental health team (CMHT) continued to be a "challenge," the report said.

"Supporting patients in CMHT waiting for a care coordinator to be allocated, supporting them to wait well, is not optimal and carries risks. This process is in place pending a new model," it stated.

The report concluded: "The GMMHT improvement plan is being driven by a new, a temporary, but experience executive leadership team.

"Greater Manchester-wide, the mental health system is under continued and sustained pressure and mental health is a theme in the health and social care system.

"Mental heal services historically have experienced under investment - though better in Salford."

A spokesman for GMMHT said: "We work very closely with the Integrated Care Board and their report is a fair reflection of our progress to date.

"We continue to work hard with all our partners to make further improvements."

The report comes after the independent clinical review into what went wrong at Prestwich's Edenfield Centre, where patients were subjected to appalling abuse as exposed by a BBC Panorama documentary, was concluded in September and the results are to be published at a date yet to be confirmed.