What does the CSR mean for public and mental health?

The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) set out a raft of measures across Government departments. Blogs by colleagues have provided an overview and a more detailed look at tax and regulatory implications. In this blog I set out key measures related to public and mental health. Two areas of increasing importance to our members and the wider sport and recreation sector.

Public health

Key points:

• £10 billion real terms increase in NHS funding in England between 2014-15 and 2020-21 of which £6 billion will be delivered by the end of 2016-17 and £4.8 billion capital funding every year for the next 5 years

• Transforming the NHS into a 7 day service and investing in new clinical strategies for cancer and mental health

• The government will make savings in local authority public health spending and consult on options to fully fund local authorities’ public health spending from their retained business rates receipts, as part of the move towards 100% business rate retention. The ring-fence on public health spending will be maintained in 2016-17 and 2017-18

• Key national services will continue to be mandated, and the government will look to devolve greater powers so that local authorities can take preventative action

• There will be average annual real-terms savings of 3.9% over the next 5 years to the public health system (but precisely how these savings will be delivered is not yet clear and we will need to wait until further details emerge). Public Health England will continue to support local authorities in this process

So this continues the move towards devolution and highlights the role of Public Health England. Less resources may make it harder to push for preventative services as remaining funding is likely to be targeted at crisis interventions.

Also, keep an eye out for the Childhood Obesity strategy in 2016. This will have a specific focus on children and we hope will recognise the role of physical activity as well as diet in tackling obesity.

Mental health

Key points:
• An additional £600 million will be invested in mental health services

• NHS England’s Mental Health Taskforce will report in early 2016 and the government will work with them to set out transformative plans, including for perinatal mental health and coverage of crisis care

• expand support for Social Impact Bonds, investing £105 million over the Parliament to help deal with issues including homelessness, poor mental health and youth unemployment

• NHS England’s Mental Health Taskforce will report in early 2016 and the government will work with them to set out transformative plans, including for perinatal mental health and coverage of crisis care

• continued push to integrate health and social care services by 2020, supported by a strong funding settlement for social care

It is positive to see mental health have such prominence in the CSR but this doesn’t mean that it is on an equal footing with physical health so there is still more to be done. The Alliance will continue to work with the Professional Players Federation, Mind and the sector on this agenda through the Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation. And we know that many members are already doing work around dementia so the UK investment of up to £150 million in a new Dementia Research Institute is also good news.

Outdoor recreation

Cutting across both these areas is outdoor recreation. We know the benefits of getting people active outdoors to their physical and mental health so it’s worth highlighting Government’s commitment to protect over £350 million funding for public forests, National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty over the Spending Review period.

So those are the top-lines and more details will emerge. Challenges for the sector include engaging local health partners and shifting the discourse from the need for more evidence to investing in what works so that the value of sport and recreation in improving people’s health and wellbeing is fully realised.

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