Making the case for workforce mental health support

We first learned about imminent government funding cuts to 40 vital NHS Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hubs in December 2022. These hubs are a vital lifeline for a workforce in crisis, helping thousands struggling with trauma, burnout, and suicide, and over the last 18 months we've done all we can to make the case for them.  

We sought support from influential organisations across health and social care, including NHS Providers, the King's Fund, the BMA and Royal Colleges who shared our concerns, and joined our call to lobby the government for long term investment in mental health services for staff.  

With the help of high-profile individuals like Stephen Fry, Adam Kay, and Alastair Campbell, an amazing 1,000 people wrote to their MP to express their concern about the service closures, highlighting this pressure issue with parliamentarians across England. We also kicked up a storm in the media, generating hundreds of stories in outlets including BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, The Independent, The Mirror, HSJ and many others.  

Our work helped to keep 23 out of the 40 hubs open during 2023-24, partly as a result of £2.3 million funding secured from NHS England in July 2023, which provided a lifeline for some hubs which had been earmarked for closure.  

One hub lead said: 

"The Fund NHS Hubs Campaign made such a difference... Suddenly, I felt like someone had my back and gave me hope…I believe our Hub would have closed without the effective campaign, and this would have meant we could not continue to support so many NHS and social care staff with burnout and mental health issues."  

It has been fantastic to see the recognition that the campaign has received, including an excellence award from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. 

There are some promising signs. NHS England has committed to undertaking a review of staff mental health provision, considering what works, and ensuring that all NHS staff have fair equitable access to support wherever they work. Hub leads have been involved in this process and sharing their experience, expertise and learning.  

In May 2024 NHS England and NHS Charities Together announced a £16 million, three-year funding programme for staff mental health and wellbeing support initiatives, and we've engaged with them to offer our support. We're also exploring how we can continue to harness the expertise of hub leads and build upon the huge knowledge base within our membership to support our staff wellbeing work moving forward.   

The success of the hubs campaign has encouraged us to undertake more work like this, using the inspirational way in which our staff and members were able to work together and make the case for psychology in areas that make a real difference to people's lives. 

If you want to stay across developments on mental health and wellbeing staff, we're continuing to update our dedicated webpage with the latest news.