Associate Director for Policy and Practice, Alexa Knight, responds to the CQC's Mental Health Act monitoring report:

“Today’s report from the CQC makes for sobering reading. The injustice that sees Black men far more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act continues and is also exacerbated by failures in social care which mean there is often nowhere to safely discharge people to. This is mirrored in community services where a lack of funding and resources leaves people spending more time in hospital than they need to. Additionally, the impact of the pandemic on children and young people is now well understood - it’s unacceptable that they are often left in inappropriate settings due to bed shortages.

“Clearly the pandemic has heaped additional pressure on staff and services. Given the prominence that has been rightly given to mental health in decisions around how we manage the pandemic, we need higher levels of investment across the board that will keep up with the greater level of demand that is now present. This would also lead to faster progress towards the improvements that have already been set out, so that people severely affected by mental illness can access a higher standard of care, which supports them to have a better quality of life.”