Luciana Berger MP, Labour’s Shadow Public Health Minister, responding to reports on mental health spending in the Budget, said:

“This Tory-Lib Dem Government promised that physical and mental health services would be treated with the same importance but instead all we have seen is a £50 million cut to children’s mental health services, a loss of 3,300 specialist mental health nurses and 1,500 mental health beds. Twice as many children are turning to A&E because they are not getting the necessary mental health support and too many are sent hundreds of miles from home, held in police cells or put on adult wards because there is nowhere else for them to go

“The Government’s own expert mental health report found that David Cameron’s NHS reorganisation created confusion and fragmentation which, when combined with funding cuts, left the most vulnerable children without the support they need. Last month, mental health services in Norman Lamb’s own constituency performed so badly that inspectors placed the trust into special measures.

“This is completely unacceptable. The NHS as we know it can’t survive another five years of the Tories’ failing plan. Labour has a better plan to put mental health at the heart of our NHS by integrating mental health, physical health and social care into one service. We will invest an extra £2.5 billion each year in the NHS, increase the proportion of the mental health budget spent on children and recruit 20,000 more nurses, including mental health specialists.”

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