On behalf of its membership, the cross-party LGA regularly submits to Government
consultations, briefs parliamentarians and responds to a wide range of parliamentary inquiries. Our recent
responses to government consultations and parliamentary briefings can be found here.
In July 2020, the Government announced the £62 million Community Discharge Grant in England to help accelerate the discharge of patients with learning disabilities and/or autistic people from mental health hospitals into the community.
From housing to public health, social care, culture and leisure services, councils lead local services that help prevent mental ill health, support early intervention and provide ongoing support.
Suicide prevention is a priority for local government. On average 13 people in England take their lives every day, with three quarters of these suicide victims being male. Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50 as well as the leading cause of death in young people.
Research commissioned by the LGA found that whilst there have been a raft of successive policies and strategies to improve mental health outcomes for children, there has been a missed opportunity to significantly ease pressure on the system by increasing the availability of preventative and early intervention support. Early intervention has been highlighted as a central aspect in many of these policies, however, this focus has not translated through to action with the system leaning towards prioritising specialist and complex treatments rather than early intervention and prevention.
School-based counselling and mental health support needs to be fully funded by the Government in all state-funded secondary schools and academies, to help support rising numbers of children and young people reporting mental health issues.
Good mental health is essential for a healthy and prosperous society. It is essential to prevent mental health issues arising, intervening early if problems do start surfacing, and helping people manage their lives going forward.
We have been calling for an overhaul of the current Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) process to ensure there is adequate protection for human rights. The decision to focus on how we best protect people’s liberty is positive and we support it.
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan is an important opportunity to recognise local government’s leadership role in improving the mental health and wellbeing of our communities.