Five key psychological areas for the next UK government

With political parties and voters preparing for election day, the British Psychological Society released a manifesto to encourage the next government to focus on five key psychological areas.

As part of its 'Psychology Matters' campaign, the BPS has emphasised the importance of prevention and early intervention, children and young people, expanding the psychological workforce, mental health support for NHS and social care staff, and the role of inequality.

Developed by BPS members and the Public Affairs team, the manifesto suggested that policymakers should understand people to ensure any policy worked. It suggested that psychology should be a cornerstone of the next government's policymaking process, and called on all political parties to develop and deliver policies using a psychological approach.

As well as five key areas it also made evidence-based recommendations to form part of the next government's agenda. In his foreword to the manifesto Dr Roman Raczka, President-Elect of the BPS, said psychological thinking combined with evidence-based research could make a significant contribution to creating good policy which enhanced people's lives.

Raczka pointed to the Covid-19 pandemic in demonstrating the role psychology had to play in developing government policy. 'The society has continued to show that we can have a significant impact. We've done this through our campaign on proper funding for NHS Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hubs, and work on topics including growing the mental health workforce and delivering better care for our children and young people.'

In the first of the five areas – prevention and early intervention – the BPS pointed to the many areas where prevention is better, and more cost-effective than cure. 'Investing in primary prevention to support people of all ages – including interventions that address poverty and social inequality, health promotion, and early intervention services is the best way to reduce demand for specialist services. Failing to invest in preventative and early intervention services will see people becoming sicker and health inequalities continuing to widen.'

Several recommendations call for a greater emphasis on prevention in areas including the rollout of national Early Support Hubs with long-term, sustainable, funding. The manifesto also recommends more investment in the psychological workforce in a number of areas – the NHS, local authorities, schools, and community, prison and probation services.

It also suggested the benefits system should support those with physical and mental health difficulties without increasing the stress and anxiety of those who use the benefits system.

The second manifesto priority put forward was to prioritise the needs of children and young people given the growing mental health needs of this group, and declining educational outcomes. It pointed to the important role of schools and local authorities in enabling an inclusive education system and a need to increase the number of educational psychologists working in local authorities.

'The next government must be prepared to invest in the education, mental health and physical wellbeing of our children, young people and their families.'

The development of a child health and wellbeing strategy, an expansion of maternal mental health services and increased funding in the educational psychology workforce are all recommended.

A mandatory CPD programme on learning needs and neurodiversity is suggested for education policy-makers, adopting whole-school approaches to mental health and wellbeing, along with a roll-out of mental-health support teams, and addressing long waiting lists for child and adolescent mental health services.

Demand for mental health services is at an all-time high. To address this the third manifesto priority emphasised a need for more investment in the psychological workforce. The BPS pointed out that there are issues with staff retention in the health sector and that training routes for psychological professions should be invested in and expanded.

'Practitioner psychologists have an important role to play in providing training, consultation, support and supervision for their multi-disciplinary colleagues to enhance their abilities to work more effectively with psychological issues. Psychologists are also well-placed to support in developing workforce planning and job design to help what the workforce we have in place now work better.'

Among its recommendations, the BPS said evidence-based, psychology-led services should be embedded in primary care, that physical healthcare services should have access to the psychological workforce and that older people's mental health services should allow for access to psychological therapies.

The BPS has long been campaigning for mental health support for NHS and social care staff following funding cuts to hubs set up during the Covid-19 pandemic which provided support. The fourth manifesto priority – to support health and social care workers – comes as a recent NHS Staff Survey found that 42 per cent of staff had felt unwell due to work in the past 12 months and one-third reported feeling burnt out because of work. The BPS recommended that Integrated Care Systems should commit to long-term, ring-fenced, funding for psychologically-led mental health support for health and care staff – both locally and nationally.

In its final manifesto priority, the BPS pointed to the role of inequalities. 'Wider societal inequalities at a time of social and economic crisis continue to deepen, with psychological consequences. We know that some groups have a much higher risk of needing mental health support. People from minoritised backgrounds are more likely to experience severe mental illness and less likely to receive care and support when they need it. People who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender diverse are also at a greater risk of experiencing poor mental health.'

The manifesto also recommends that reform to the Mental Health Act should address racial disparities in the mental health system and address the 'unacceptable' trend that those with severe mental health difficulties are more likely to end up in the criminal justice system. It also called for legislation to ban conversion therapy to be brought forward, and to make social class a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.

Download the manifesto.