New Statutory body as an alternative to the NHS for mental health and hidden disability

Any massive change is going to be difficult simply because of lack of money. Certainly if experts-by-experience were tapped into, and given some kind of certification, that would reduce local bills. Andy Burnham seems keen on having the budget spread more evenly through the country. I do think more localising of services would be a good idea, but some things need to be centralised, for example research centres and specialist services like operating theatres or cancer centres or where experts need to be close together to share research and experience. 

Any massive change is going to be difficult simply because of lack of money. Certainly if experts-by-experience were tapped into, and given some kind of certification, that would reduce local bills. Andy Burnham seems keen on having the budget spread more evenly through the country. I do think more localising of services would be a good idea, but some things need to be centralised, for example research centres and specialist services like operating theatres or cancer centres or where experts need to be close together to share research and experience. 

Marianne72 said:

experts need to be close together to share research and experience. 

This to me is why "ground-up" expertise for autistic people such as ourselves is vital in the construction of any service.  And this sort of forum is the training and proving ground for it.  Unfortunately "experts and certification" for those people working in the field seems to me to be always looking at last years knowledge.

This forum I think is a community mental health resource.  

And if i'm completely realistic, despite all my ranting and raving, I expect by the way things are going it will be a cold day in a hot place for the government to actually do the right thing by us.

Meanwhile this sort of peer-led network can crowd source real-time, adaptive strategies that actually work for people today—bypassing the institutional lag entirely and developing the power inside the community until wider society catches up or until we've found the right leverage to get things changed.

Best Wishes

Hi Marianne72 w/r/to costs - I quote my answer from earlier in this thread Please excuse me if I expand further - this is an answer to the entire thread not personally to you

Phased said:

re costs.  What about the saving?  NHS England consideration of this  in a paper in 2012 was "Mental health problems cost UK economy at least £117.9 billion per year (5% of UK GDP in 2019)"   source:: https://www.england.nhs.uk/aac/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2022/09/B1482_research-demand-signalling-national-mental-health-programme_september-2022.pdf

so if that problem is completely resolved there's up to 5% of UK gross domestic product for the government to spend here to get it right and anything less and the nation is in profit on the deal.

UK GDP is roughly 4 and a 1/4 trillion at present per year https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp

- so 5% of that at present gives a total that the government potentially has more than 150 £ billion to spend on this and anything less than that is a "win" for the UK economy if mental health problems are completely resolved

But let us be pessimistic and say that only 10% savings could be made by improving the mental health of the population = that is £15 billion that could be spent...

to give an idea about how much that sort of money would buy in terms of service to resolve the problem:

this year the the NHS will cost the UK approx £220 billion comprising day to day costs  approx £205 billion in day to day costs https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2026-to-2027-financial-directions-to-nhs-england/2026-to-2027-financial-directions-to-nhs-england

plus capital budget of approx £14 billion https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/52967/documents/295399/default/

So £15 billion pounds is approx 1/8 of the amount spent on the entire NHS - that is a heck of a lot of service potential - a lot of training and a lot of staff 

Would this make a difference?

Crunching the numbers £15 billion per year is approx £1000 for every person in the UK experiencing mental health problems https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/a-z-mental-health/mental-health-facts-and-statistics/ - more than 4x the current spending...

To put that in perspective for those who think that £15 billion is too much to spend  the NHS suggest that this isnearly 4 times as much they think is needed to break the back of the problem - they say it could be done for between £4 to £5 billion heavily weighted towards community.https://www.england.nhs.uk/aac/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2022/09/B1482_research-demand-signalling-national-mental-health-programme_september-2022.pdf#page=3

Personally as the OP and others (including myself) have highlighted maybe we can't trust the NHS to do it and that money could end up going other places - like those flashy centralised specialist services.

So let's see how much the government plans currently have allocated to this -  under the NHS Long Term Plan, the government proudly highlighted a ring-fenced growth investment of £2.3 billion a year and an extra £1.3 billion per year specifically for the Community Mental Health Framework. 

https://www.england.nhs.uk/aac/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2022/09/B1482_research-demand-signalling-national-mental-health-programme_september-2022.pdf#page=7

However that's not working: The overwhelming consensus from official data, including the benchmark and independent sector evaluations, is that UK mental health is getting worse, with overall prevalence rates rising and clinical services facing unprecedented demand. 

https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/the-evidence-is-clear-the-nations-mental-health-is-getting-worse-mind/

Based on this I think that it is reasonable to say that spending on improving the UK mental health is underfunded maybe?

So - perhaps when considering this in respect of lack of money these figures are worth pondering over and maybe that it's because the government can't afford to borrow to pay for it?  Well the current debt UK debt is costing approximately £110 billion in interest for the current 2025/26 financial year  https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/brief-guides-and-explainers/public-finances/

And maybe an argument comes up that we can't afford to borrow money to resolve mental health issues?

I know it's a very reductionist argument but... remember that figure of how much mental health problems were costing the UK  this year?  It was £160 billion...

Mental health problems in the UK are costing the UK economy nearly one a half time  the cost of paying interest on the entire national debt.

Personally i don't think that the UK can afford not to pay something to do something about it.