Mental health patients are waiting nearly 12 times longer than those needing physical health treatment, despite Labour’s manifesto pledge to give both ‘the same attention and focus’ – raising questions about the government’s commitment to one of its central health promises.”.
Labour’s 2024 manifesto says:
“right at the core of our mission will be a bold new ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children in our history. And, as a crucial part of that, we will reform the NHS to ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health.”
It goes on to say: “Waiting lists for those referred for support are too high, and shamefully so for young people. Labour will bring waiting times down and intervene earlier.”
There is no such parity of treatment, and no sign of serious action to reduce waiting times. The most recent available figures (May 2025) show 14,586 mental health patients waiting over 18 months for treatment – 12-times the numbers waiting 18 months for physical health treatment (1,237 patients) in the same month. Mental health charity Rethink Mental Illness argues:
“In recent years the data has continuously painted a stark picture suggesting those facing the longest waits for mental health care are now waiting nearly two years (658 days), more than twice as long as those needing elective physical health treatment (299 days).”
The disparities are even starker in emergency care. Mental health patients make up less than 2% of A&E attendances, yet one in four was over 12 hours – more than double the rate for other patients. The Darzi report documented one patient who spent more than 18 days in an Emergency Department.
Little has changed since July 2024, despite a marginal reduction in the longest waits. And while acute hospitals face financial penalties for missing physical health targets – including public rankings in new league tables – there are no equivalent pressures to tackle the 1.7 million-strong mental health waiting list.
Impact since the pandemic
Of course, the problems that were exacerbated during the COVID pandemic are still affecting the figures. NHS Providers note the scale of the increase in demand for mental health services:
“In July 2025, new mental health referrals rose to 499,830. This is the highest number of new referrals recorded in a month. New referrals are up by 9.2% compared to last year, and 47.7% higher than six years ago, before the pandemic.
“… The number of adult open referrals rose by 8% from last year to 1.79m, the highest on record. Open referrals for [Children and Young People] CYP rose by 10% from last year to
For children and young people, the situation has actually deteriorated. Over 362,000 are still waiting for first contact with community mental health services – 5% more than last year. Those waiting have been left in limbo for a median of 281 days, nearly ten months, and 72 days longer than the previous year.
The crisis extends far beyond children. The number of people in contact with mental health services has jumped 10% in a year to 2.15 million – a 55% increase since before the pandemic. Simply maintaining current waiting times would require significant additional resources. Reducing them, as Labour promised, would require far more.
Progress in adult mental health services
However there has been some progress on adult services: July’s figures showed 192,240 adults with serious mental illness (18% fewer than the same time last year) were still waiting for treatment from community mental health services in the three months to July, and the median wait time for second contact since referral for adults was 66 days – 55 days less than last year.
Mental health director resigns
Against this backdrop, the resignation in mid September of NHS England’s mental health director Claire Murdoch sparked an unusually robust challenge from Health Service Journal editor Alastair McClellan, who questioned the extent to which the Labour government is committed in practice to improving mental health services:
“As HSJ noted, it was clear from as early as last November that the incoming Labour administration did not consider mental health one of its priorities, regardless of pledges made in its manifesto. Since last autumn the disregard for mental health – where the longest waits stretch years further than anything in the elective world – has become ever more evident.”
Ms Murdoch was appointed back in 2016 by a Tory government, but had a strong record of fighting hard for increased (and ring-fenced) resources to expand mental health services to meet rapidly growing demand. Her letter to NHS England CEO Sir Jim Mackey makes clear she too believes Labour ministers wanted her out:
“It seems that it is common knowledge that change at the top is wanted. You have told me that a new person to lead the sector is wanted by our political leadership. […] Also realistically I can’t lead the sector when the political leadership don’t want to engage with me …”
But shooting the messenger does not mean Wes Streeting can avoid the harsh reality of the message. Mental health is clearly not allocated attention anywhere near equivalent to physical health: and while there is constant talk about taking action to improve public health and reduce demand on front line services, that too is mainly directed at reducing pressure on A&E and elective care, not mental health – where the demand is still growing rapidly.
The scale of need has surged. One in five adults now experiences common mental health problems like anxiety or depression, up from one in six in 2007.
The rise among children has been even sharper. Among 8-16 year-olds, rates have jumped from one in eight (2017) to one in six (2023). For 17-19 year-olds, the increase is more alarming still: from one in ten to one in four over the same period. By 2024, nearly half of adults with common mental disorders were seeking treatment, generating 5.2 million referrals.
The number of children and young people in contact with mental health services has more than doubled under Claire Murdoch’s leadership at NHS England. Her evident frustration at Labour’s failure to properly resource mental health has been echoed by Baroness Mary Watkins, the outgoing non-executive director and a former mental health nurse.
Watkins has publicly warned that ministers lack a mental health plan and desperately need one. On current trajectories, she says, the share of NHS spending allocated to mental health will fall this year and continue declining for the next three years.
Call for action
Two years ago more than 30 organisations co-signed a call for a new 10-year, cross-government mental health strategy for England. A mentally healthier nation comprised three key tenets: prevention, equality and support, singling out social and environmental determinants – like poverty, housing, and pollution – as the keys for prevention. It also called for investment in a “more powerful” public health infrastructure. It was ignored by both main parties.
Baroness Watkins has also highlighted the surge in demand for child and adolescent services, and questioned whether private sector providers are “over-diagnosing.” According to the HSJ, Wes Streeting seems set to jump on this same bandwagon, commissioning a new review of the prevalence of mental illness and neurodivergence, with a particular focus on whether some conditions are being over-diagnosed.
Exactly what the outcome might be if this is found to be the case is not yet clear – but whatever comes out of the review there is no escaping the need to invest much more in mental health care, including community support, and combating the inequalities and pressures that have generated and perpetuated so much mental ill-health.
In March Dr Lade Smith CBE, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, warned that with mental illness accounting for more than 20% of the disease burden in the UK:
“It is illogical that the share of NHS funding for mental health services is being reduced at a time of soaring need and significant staff shortages. Significantly, mental illness affects many young people as they should be entering into the workforce, with 75% of mental disorders emerging by the age of 24.
However, Wes Streeting’s Department decided to allocate mental health a smaller share of the financial cake:
“The proportion of NHS funding allocated to mental health services will decrease from 8.87% in 2022/23 to 8.71% in 2025/26. This will equate to these vital services missing out on an estimated £300 million or more that they would have received if their share of spend had been maintained.”
A BMA report updated in September again warns that funding is not keeping up with demand, the mental health workforce is not big enough, and there are not enough mental health beds in England. Suppose Wes Streeting wants any new review to be taken seriously, rather than seen as a means to avoid meeting the real level of demand. In that case, he must start to address the problems that the manifesto identified, and every professional body is urging the government to tackle.
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