Influencing decision makers
Earlier this week, Dr Lade Smith CBE briefed Parliamentarians on the Mental Health Bill in England and Wales, ahead of its final stages in the House of Lords and before MPs start debating it later this Spring.
The event was the first event run by the APPG on Mental Health this year. The College provides secretariat duties to, alongside Rethink Mental Illness for the APPG and helped organise the session. Lade spoke on panel with the Minister leading on the Bill, Baroness Merron, as well as Mark Winstanley, Chief Executive of Rethink, and an expert with experience being detained under the Mental Health Act. The event was chaired by Sojan Joseph MP, Chair of the APPG.
There was thoughtful and engaging discussion on the legislation, with a number of Parliamentarians in attendance. Lade spoke about how Parliamentarians can ensure the legislation can reduce inequalities, protect people and the importance of backing any reforms with the resources needed.
The College is working with Parliamentarians to table amendments in order to make improvements the legislation.
We have also been engaging Sojan Joseph MP about our concerns on the Mental Health Waiting Lists.
In January, the Government published its plan to reduce NHS waiting lists for elective care in England. Whilst we welcomed a strong focus on reducing waiting lists, we were extremely disappointed to see mental health patients not included in these plans.
On Tuesday, Sojan asked the Secretary of State Wes Streeting what steps the Government are taking to ensure that we see the same progress in waiting times for both mental and physical health treatments during .
It was positive to see him raise our concerns in the House of Commons, and we will continue to pressure the Government to ensure mental health is given the same attention as physical health.