The Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) is asking for ‘practical examples and implementation evidence to inform a new strategic approach to mental health’.
During Mental Health Awareness Week (11th-17th May 2026), the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) launched a call for evidence to seek out the best mental health practice in communities, to inform the Government’s Mental Health Strategy for England. The strategy will be part of the Government’s 10-Year Heath Plan for England, with the ambition to meet its commitment to ‘give mental health the attention it deserves’.
The Government highlighted a need for action in the face of a rapid rise in demand for mental health services and long waiting times for those in need to access support. It notes some investments that it has made in mental health care, for example, meeting the target of 8,500 extra mental health workers three years ahead of schedule, and making £473 million available over the next four years to support mental health emergency departments, community-based support, and schools and colleges. However, it highlights that the ‘the current system remains reactive, fragmented and inconsistent. Support varies based on postcode, and too often people only get help when they reach crisis point.’
What will the Mental Health Strategy for England focus on?
In the 10-Year Health Plan for England, the DHSC had a number of contributions from the public, mental health sector and experts. Through this engagement, it identified that the Government needs to focus on the following:
- early intervention, including expanding mental health support teams in schools and colleges
- mental health funding and workforce training
- safe and recovery-oriented inpatient mental health care
- reducing the longest waiting times for children and young people’s community mental health services
- prevention and improved community-based support, by working across sectors like housing, social care and education
- effective and neuroinclusive digital models of care to complement existing support offers
- addressing inequalities and providing support for marginalised and vulnerable groups, ‘including neurodivergent people, people who identify as LGBT+, care experienced people and people from ethnic minority communities’.
The strategy will also be informed by an independent review into the prevalence of and support for mental health conditions, ADHD and autism.
In response to the DHSC’s announcement of the strategy and Call for Evidence, Dr Sarah Hughes, CEO of Mind, explains:
“Plans for a new 10-year, cross-government mental health strategy are an important and overdue acknowledgement of the growing pressures facing both the nation’s mental health and the services supporting people every day. But this cannot simply be another plan built around managing crisis … This is a rare opportunity to fundamentally reshape how we think about mental health in this country — not simply treating illness, but building a healthier, fairer and more compassionate society where fewer people reach crisis in the first place.”
How can you inform the strategy?
The DHSC’s call for evidence is asking for examples of good practice across the UK and internationally from mental health and wider health services, local government, education and training settings, workplaces and community settings. It also wants to hear from those with ‘direct experience of service provision’ such as academics, clinicians, commissioners and advocacy groups.
Example questions from the survey include:
- What further support should be provided for people with severe and enduring mental illness?
- What are the main barriers to continuity of care across transitions between hospital and community services, and between different levels of care, including child to adult services?
- What evidence and innovative examples are there of digital and AI tools being used to achieve [improve mental health and wider societal outcomes, support access to effective mental health support, complement relational care] these outcomes?
- Which preventative approaches have the strongest evidence for reducing the numbers of lives lost to suicide?
If you have examples of good practice in supporting mental health or experiences of the current system to share, have your say in the Call for Evidence.
Learn more
References
- Gov.UK (2026) ‘Press release: Government to transform mental health care with new strategy’. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-transform-mental-health-care-with-new-strategy (Accessed: 19 May 2026)
- Gov.UK (2026)’ Open call for evidence: Informing the mental health strategy for England’. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/informing-the-mental-health-strategy-for-england (Accessed: 19 May 2026)
- Mind (2026) ‘Mind reacts to new mental health strategy’. Available at: https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/mind-reacts-to-new-mental-health-strategy/ (Accessed: 19 May 2026)
