Written question WQ83422

The Welsh Government has provided an additional £42m this financial year for mental health support. This funding is recurrent and in addition to the £727m mental health baseline already provided to health boards. Our Programme for Government makes it clear that we will continue to prioritise investment in mental health services.

The additional resources are supporting a number of priority areas within community services. We know these services have been particularly impacted by the pandemic and the Welsh Government remains committed to their improvement.

Examples of funding use include:

• £4m to support a range of non-clinical support provided primarily by the third sector

• £6m to support further transformation of crisis support and our commitment to have 24/7 single points of contact for mental health crisis in place by the end of April 2022. These will connect people, via 111, directly with a mental health practitioner

• £4m investment across the system to schools and to expand schools counselling service to support children and young people

• Continued investment in community perinatal mental health services across Wales with more than £3m of mental health service improvement funding annually.

• Prioritising investment for eating disorder services. Since 2017 health boards have received an additional £3.8m to support improvements in services and waiting times. The funding currently supports service reconfiguration focused towards earlier intervention.

However, this mental health investment is only one element of the wider system that protects, improves and supports mental health. We are committed to strengthening the cross-government approach needed to make progress and I will continue to work with my Cabinet colleagues to achieve this.

The refreshed Together for Mental Health Delivery Plan 2019-2022, published in October 2020, provides further detail about how we intend to support mental health services in Wales.