Demand and activity
The latest Mental Health Service Dataset (MHSDS) monthly performance data for October 2024, published in December, continues to highlight the increased pressures facing the mental health sector. There were 1.98 million people in contact with mental health services in October 2024, a similar figure to the previous month. Contacts are up by 8.4% compared to a year ago and up by 45% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
The number of mental health referrals also remain high as 486,000 mental health referrals were recorded in October 2024. This is up by 12.4% compared to the previous month and up by 10.9% compared to a year ago. Compared to pre-pandemic levels, referrals are considerably higher, an increase of 37.7%.
Due to increased demand and limited capacity across NHS mental health and other services, sometimes patients are cared for further away from home. At the end of October 2024, there were 373 inappropriate out of area placements (OAPs) in adult acute beds, a decrease of 23 OAPs since the previous month but up by 40 OAPs compared to the previous year. Compared to April 2023, OAPs have increased by 56.
Learning disability and autism
Of the 1.98 million people in contact with mental health services, 286,184 of these were with learning disability and autism (LDA) services. This is an increase of 9.5% compared to last year and is 2.3 times higher than pre-pandemic levels (October 2019). Latest monthly statistics on LDA patients from the Assuring Transformation (AT) collection show that there were 2,050 learning disabilities and/or autism inpatients at the end of October 2024. Over half of these (51%) have been in hospital for over two years.
FIGURE 8
Number of patients in contact with mental health or learning disabilities services
Community mental health
Community mental health services play an important role in delivering mental health care for those with severe mental health needs within their local community. Latest national level data shows that in the 12 months to October 2024, 804,350 children and young people received at least one contact with NHS funded mental health services. This is an increase of 7.1% since the previous year and is an additional 290,386 contacts since the start of the NHS Long Term Plan. The data also shows that in the three months to October 353,179 children and young people were still waiting for treatment from community mental health services, a similar figure to the previous three-month rolling period.
For adults and older adults with serious mental health needs, 121,214 received their second contact with services between August 2024 and October 2024, an increase of 1.5% compared to the previous three-month period. However, 229,084 were still waiting for treatment from community mental health services in the three months ending October 2024. This is down by 4.9% compared to the previous three-month rolling period.
Intervention-specific performance and waiting times
Eating disorders
The high demand for services means that trusts are unable to meet the national standards for eating disorders. The national target for children and young people with eating disorders accessing treatment is 95%. However, between August 2024 and October 2024, only 81.2% of patients with eating disorders categorised as urgent cases, started treatment within one week and 77.2% of routine cases started treatment within four weeks, both missing their respective 95% targets.
FIGURE 9
Percentage of urgent and routine cases seen within one and four weeks
Talking therapies
Progress continues to be made in specific pathways such as NHS talking therapies as services meet the key national target again this month. In October 2024, there were 168,013 referrals to NHS talking therapies, an increase of 14.9% compared to the previous month. 92% of referrals who finished a course of treatment in the month, accessed NHS talking therapies within six weeks, meeting the national waiting time standard of 75%. Most trusts are meeting the standard as 36 out of the 37 reporting NHS trusts met the target this month.
FIGURE 10
Percentage of referrals accessing NHS talking therapies within six weeks
Urgent and emergency liaison mental health services
NHS England has recently began publishing data related to the delivery of mental health crisis care services via the NHS 111 mental health option. This service was introduced to offer timely and effective telephone and face-to-face support for people experiencing a mental health crisis. Latest data for October 2024 reveals that 165,669 calls to access crisis care through NHS 111 were received, equating to 5,523 calls per day in October. This is an increase of 14.9% since the previous month. Of the calls received, 115,428 were answered (70% of calls received).
Liaison mental health services play a valuable role in supporting people in a crisis, including those who have both mental health and physical health problems in a hospital setting. In October 2024, there were 16,313 new referrals to liaison psychiatry teams from A&E with first face to face contact within one hour. This is up by 5.2% compared to the previous month (806 more). Compared to a year ago, this is up by 17.7%.