Demand and activity
The latest mental health monthly performance data for April 2024, published in July, reveal both ongoing challenges but also some areas of improvement across mental health and learning disability settings.
Referrals for mental health services have fallen since the previous month. However, demand for services remains substantially higher than pre-pandemic levels. This highlights the longer-term trend of higher demand for mental health services, despite some month-to-month fluctuations. In April 2024, nearly 426,000 mental health referrals were made, an increase of 15% compared to a year ago. This is also two fifths higher (40%) than five years ago in April 2019.
Although the number of referrals and people in contact with mental health services fell in the latest month, there are more people than ever before in contact with mental health services. The latest figures continue to highlight the importance of the new government prioritising mental health services and tackling the mental healthcare deficit.
There were 1.91 million people in contact with mental health services in April 2024. This is up by 11.3% compared to a year ago and remains considerably higher than pre-pandemic levels, with 41.1% more people in contact with mental health services since April 2019. In total, 21.8 million people were in contact with mental health services in 2023/24, an increase of 9.4%, compared to 2022/23.
Number of patients in contact with mental health or learning disabilities services
In the 12 months to April 2024, a total of 795,470 children and young people accessed mental health services, an increase of 1.2% on the previous month’s data. The upward trend evidences the growing utilisation of mental health services among children and young people.
Learning disability and autism (LDA) services are also experiencing high demand as the number of people in contact with these services is up by 8.5% compared to April 2023. Latest monthly statistics on LDA patients from the Assuring Transformation (AT) collection show that there were 2,020 learning disabilities and/or autism inpatients at the end of May 2024. Over half of these (53%) have been in hospital for over two years.
Response and waiting times
The evidence-based treatment pathway (EBTP) standard for urgent and emergency liaison mental health services states that any person experiencing a mental health crisis should receive a response within one hour. In April 2024, there were 14,080 new referrals to liaison psychiatry teams from A&E with first face to face contact within one hour. This is down by 7% compared to the previous month but up by 13.8% compared to a year ago which reflects a growing demand for urgent psychiatric care over the past year.
New referrals to mental health, learning disabilities and autism services
Trusts continue to focus on recovering performance and improve existing waiting time standards however specific pathways continue to face pressure as a result of the sustained levels of high demand. The national target for children and young people with eating disorders accessing treatment is 95%. However, between February 2024 and April 2024, only 72.9% of patients with eating disorders started treatment within one week for urgent cases and 75.3% of patients started within six weeks for routine cases.
Progress is being made in other areas such as NHS talking therapies as services continue to meet the key national target. In May 2024, 92.2% of referrals who finished a course of treatment in the month accessed NHS talking therapies within six weeks, meeting the national standard of 75%. Most trusts are meeting the target as 39 out of the 40 reporting NHS trusts met the target this month.
Percentage of referrals accessing NHS talking therapies within six weeks
Community mental health services are a vital component of the overall mental health care system, providing essential support and treatment to individuals within their local communities. These services are often the first point of contact for many seeking help and are important for managing ongoing mental health conditions.
Between February 2024 and April 2024, over 185,000 children and young people accessed support through NHS-funded mental health services, a 0.5% increase from the previous month, with median wait times rising to 17 days from 14 days. Meanwhile, 327,340 children and young people were still waiting for treatment from community health services, a decrease of nearly 3% compared to the last three-month rolling period. For adults, 110,233 individuals with a serious mental illness received their second contact with services, a 2.6% increase from the previous month, while 246,640 adults with serious mental illness were still waiting for treatment. Median wait times for adults also increased slightly, from 46 to 48 days.