Mental health affects millions of people throughout the United Kingdom.
Awareness has improved, but too many people still report long waits, fragmented services, difficulty accessing treatment, crisis-driven care, staff shortages and unacceptable differences in access and outcomes.
Right First Time UK supports meaningful reform of mental health services and wider public systems so that people receive timely, compassionate, evidence-based and person-centred help.
Mental health policy should not only respond after somebody reaches crisis point. Prevention, early intervention, safe services, continuity of care, patient rights, family involvement and accountability all matter.
This page brings together current government reform, official evidence, national strategies and major campaigns calling for change.
Need Help Now?
This is a campaign and information page. It is not a crisis service.
If somebody's life is in immediate danger, call 999 or go to A&E.
England
For urgent mental health help, call 111 and select the mental health option.
Wales
Call 111 and press option 2 for urgent mental health support, 24 hours a day.
Scotland
Call NHS 24 on 111 and choose the mental health option if urgent help cannot wait.
Northern Ireland
Lifeline is available 24/7 on 0808 808 8000.
Samaritans: call 116 123 free, day or night.
Why We Are Campaigning
People with lived experience, families, carers, clinicians, charities, regulators and researchers have repeatedly raised concerns about access, safety, workforce pressures and continuity of mental health care.
Long Waiting Times
People can wait months for assessments, therapy or specialist treatment.
Delays can allow difficulties to worsen and can increase the risk that support begins only after somebody reaches crisis.
Crisis-Driven Care
Too much pressure remains concentrated at the crisis end of the system.
Early intervention should reduce the need for emergency and inpatient care wherever possible.
Fragmented Services
People can move between GPs, community teams, hospitals, social care, charities and specialist services without one clear, coordinated plan.
Workforce Pressure
Mental health professionals themselves are often working within overstretched systems.
Reform must support staff as well as people using services.
Inequality
Access and outcomes can differ because of location, ethnicity, poverty, age, disability and other factors.
Patient & Family Voice
People repeatedly report that they do not feel heard or that families and carers are not properly included.
What Official Evidence Says
Reform should be driven by evidence rather than assumptions.
The Care Quality Commission's State of Care 2024/25 report said average monthly new referrals to secondary mental health services had increased by 15% compared with 2022/23.
CQC also reported that people continued to face long waits for mental health care.
Latest NHS Mental Health Service Snapshot — July 2026
NHS England's latest monthly statistics show the scale of demand on specialist mental health, learning-disability and autism services in England. These figures are service-activity statistics: they should not be interpreted as the number of people with a mental health condition in the whole population.
People with an open referral to mental health services at the end of July 2026.
New referrals received during July 2026.
Attended care contacts recorded during July 2026.
People with an open referral involving adult mental health services.
People with an open referral involving children and young people's mental health services.
People subject to the Mental Health Act at the end of July 2026, including 16,658 detained in hospital.
Waiting and Capacity Pressures
The Care Quality Commission's latest State of Care and Mental Health Act monitoring reports continue to identify access and capacity pressures in England.
Average new referrals to secondary mental health services each month.
Increase in average monthly new referrals reported by CQC.
One third of respondents reported waiting three months or more for care.
Average occupancy for all mental health overnight beds in 2024/25.
CQC says occupancy remained above the recommended threshold.
Share of roles in NHS mental health trusts reported unfilled in March 2025.
CQC also reported that people were becoming more unwell before Mental Health Act assessment, that delayed discharge and fewer available beds were adding pressure, and that inconsistent community support could increase the risk of readmission.
CQC State of Care 2024/25
Independent regulator evidence on waiting times, access and service pressures.
CQC evidence →CQC Mental Health Act monitoring
Evidence on detention, bed pressures, workforce and patient experience.
Mental Health Act monitoring →Suicide: Current Official Statistics
Suicide statistics need careful interpretation because deaths are registered after a coroner's inquest, so the year of registration is not always the year in which the death occurred.
Suicides registered in 2024, a rate of 11.4 per 100,000 people.
Provisional suicides registered in England during 2025, rate 11.1 per 100,000.
Registered suicide rates per 100,000 for males and females respectively in England and Wales.
ONS 2024 suicide registrations
ONS statistics →ONS 2025 provisional England data
Provisional data →New Community Mental Health Investment Announced in 2026
In August 2026 the Government announced a £343 million programme intended to expand community mental health provision in England, including up to 159 new or expanded NHS mental health centres. The stated aim is to provide earlier local support and specialist crisis care outside A&E.
For this campaign, the important test is not the announcement alone but what happens after it: which centres actually open, where they are located, how many permanent staff they have, what services they provide, how quickly people are seen and whether crisis demand and hospital pressure reduce.
Data Quality Matters Too
Mental health statistics are essential for accountability, but published figures can contain methodological or data-quality problems. NHS England has warned users about specific 2025/26 and 2026/27 issues, including an Early Intervention in Psychosis caseload measure that had overcounting in earlier data and a children and young people's eating-disorder methodology issue that affected some waiting counts.
That is why this campaign supports publishing corrections openly and avoiding claims that rely on a single metric without checking its methodology and revision notes.
NHS England data-quality notes →What This Evidence Adds to the Campaign
- Access: publish meaningful waiting data, not just referral totals.
- Capacity: monitor bed occupancy, out-of-area placements, delayed discharge and crisis demand.
- Workforce: report vacancies, retention, permanent staffing and reliance on temporary staff.
- Children: publish waiting, referral, treatment and outcome data separately for children and young people.
- Safety: show how serious incidents, deaths, restrictive practices and inquiry recommendations are followed up.
- Suicide prevention: use national and local evidence without making unsupported claims about individual deaths.
- Investment: connect every major funding announcement to public measures showing what was actually delivered.
- Data quality: correct errors openly and retain revision histories so statistics can be trusted.
Additional evidence checked: 28 September 2026. Live NHS activity figures, strategies and programme delivery can change, so official links should be reviewed regularly.
What Right First Time UK Is Calling For
We support a modern mental health system built around prevention, dignity, safety, timely treatment and accountability.
Mental Health Act Reform — A Major Change Has Happened
The legislation received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025.
It reforms the Mental Health Act framework in England and Wales governing compulsory detention and treatment.
Care & Treatment Plans
The reforms include stronger requirements around care and treatment planning for detained patients.
Patient Choice & Voice
Reforms are intended to strengthen patient autonomy and involvement in treatment decisions.
Nominated Person
The reforms replace aspects of the existing nearest-relative system with a nominated person framework.
Detention Criteria
The new legislation introduces changes to the criteria governing detention and compulsory treatment.
Autism & Learning Disability
The reforms change how autism and learning disability can be used within detention provisions, particularly for treatment under section 3.
Community Treatment Orders
The legislation introduces tighter requirements concerning Community Treatment Orders.
Implementation is being phased.
Codes of Practice, regulations, workforce planning, funding and implementation decisions will determine how much difference the law makes in practice.
Mental health organisations including Mind and Rethink Mental Illness are therefore continuing to campaign around implementation and patient rights.
England — New Cross-Government Mental Health Strategy
In May 2026 the UK Government announced development of a new cross-government mental health strategy for England.
The government says the strategy should move the system towards:
Prevention
Stopping problems escalating where possible.
Early Treatment
Providing help earlier and faster.
Community
Helping people remain active in family, education, work and community life.
Cross-Government Action
Recognising that mental health is affected by much more than NHS services alone.
It opened on 15 May 2026 and closed in July 2026.
The next transparency test is whether the final strategy contains measurable commitments, funding, timescales and clear accountability.
Mental Health Reform Across the United Kingdom
Health is devolved. There is not one identical UK mental health system.
England
A new cross-government strategy is being developed alongside implementation of the Mental Health Act 2025.
Wales
Wales has a Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2025–2035 supported by a 2025–2028 delivery plan.
Scotland
Scotland's Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy has its own outcomes and monitoring framework.
An initial monitoring report was published in January 2026.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland's Mental Health Strategy 2021–2031 sets a ten-year direction for reform.
The Department of Health has also published delivery and implementation information.
Major Current Campaigns for Change
Right First Time UK is independent of the organisations below, but many of their current campaigns raise issues that overlap with the reform this page is calling for.
Mind — See Me Now
Mind is currently campaigning for a same-day open-access approach to mental health support.
The principle is that when somebody reaches out for mental health help, they should be properly seen and assessed rather than being placed into a long chain of referrals before meaningful support begins.
Mind — Mental Health Act Reform
Mind campaigned for reform of the Mental Health Act and continues to focus on how the new legislation is implemented.
Its continuing priorities include patient rights, inequality, advocacy and safe community and inpatient support.
Mind — Raise the Standard
This campaign focuses on standards, dignity and safety within mental health hospitals.
It has highlighted unsuitable buildings, poor environments and concerns about how people are treated in inpatient care.
Head On
Head On launched in April 2026 and brings together more than 20 mental health organisations.
Organisations involved include groups such as Rethink Mental Illness, Mental Health UK, CALM, YoungMinds, Wellcome and the Mental Health Foundation.
Its aim is to build political pressure for greater ambition on mental health.
Rethink — Better Care = Safer Care
Rethink Mental Illness is campaigning for safer inpatient mental health services.
Its campaign calls for:
- A national register of safety recommendations
- Better communication with families and carers
- More permanent and skilled staff
- An end to inappropriate out-of-area placements
Mental Health Foundation — Prevention
The Mental Health Foundation argues that action should happen before poor mental health becomes crisis.
Its 2026–2031 direction places prevention at the centre of reform.
Future Minds
Future Minds is focused on transforming children and young people's mental health.
The campaign involves Centre for Mental Health, the Children and Young People's Mental Health Coalition, Centre for Young Lives and YoungMinds.
A 2026 roadmap sets out proposals for improving children's mental health through to 2035.
Samaritans — Preventing Suicide Together
In September 2026 Samaritans launched its new 2026–2036 strategy.
The organisation campaigns for suicide prevention to extend beyond specialist mental health services and into the wider systems that affect people's lives.
Suicide Prevention Must Be Part of System Reform
Mental health reform must include suicide prevention, but suicide prevention cannot be left to mental health services alone.
England's official Suicide Prevention Strategy 2023–2028 recognises risk factors including:
- Financial difficulty
- Economic adversity
- Social isolation
- Domestic abuse
- Physical illness
- Gambling-related harm
- Alcohol and drug misuse
- Contact with the justice system
- Other forms of vulnerability
The strategy says the experiences of people affected by suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and suicide bereavement should inform planning and decision-making.
Mental Health Harm Can Be Created or Worsened by Public Systems
Mental health is affected not only by healthcare. Financial insecurity, housing problems, family disputes, employment, welfare processes, debt, enforcement action and other government systems can also contribute to severe stress.
A system should not wait until somebody reaches crisis before recognising obvious vulnerability.
Safeguarding, reasonable communication, escalation procedures and referral to appropriate help should form part of public-service design.
STOPS — Stop The Overpayments and Psychological Stress
STOPS is an independent UK campaign highlighting reported mental-health impacts associated with government administrative and enforcement processes, particularly experiences involving the Child Maintenance Service.
People involved in the campaign report experiences including:
- Prolonged stress
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Trauma-related distress
- Financial hardship
- Family strain
- Severe psychological distress
These are concerns reported by the campaign and people involved with it. Individual allegations should not automatically be treated as proven findings against a public body.
What STOPS Calls For
- Recognition of the mental-health effects public systems can have
- Better safeguarding for vulnerable people
- Better support during administrative disputes
- Suicide-prevention procedures within public services
- Greater transparency and accountability
- Lived experience included in reform
Children and Young People's Mental Health
Reform must start early.
Children and young people should not need to become severely unwell before they qualify for meaningful support.
Early Support
- Schools and colleges
- Family support
- Community services
- Primary care
Specialist Help
- CAMHS / NHS services
- Specialist assessment
- Crisis support
- Inpatient care where genuinely required
Wider Causes
- Bullying
- SEND
- School attendance difficulties
- Trauma
- Poverty
- Family difficulties
Families should not repeatedly have to retell distressing histories because services do not communicate.
Transition from children's services to adult services also requires careful planning.
Related Neurodevelopmental Support Campaign
Support Better Autism Training for Speech Therapists
UK Parliament petition 764248 calls for additional autism-specific training to become mandatory for prospective and practising NHS Speech and Language Therapists.
The petition calls for stronger knowledge of:
- Autistic communication needs
- Language processing
- Understanding speech disorders
- Augmentative and Alternative Communication
- Apraxia
- Appropriate referral and support
The official UK Parliament petition was published on 21 April 2026 and is currently due to close on 21 October 2026.
The live Parliament page should be used for the latest signature total.
Opens the official UK Parliament Petitions website.
Safe Inpatient Mental Health Care
When somebody is admitted to a mental health unit, the service should be safe, therapeutic, respectful and properly staffed.
Safety
- Effective risk assessment
- Safe environments
- Learning from serious incidents
- Clear safety recommendations
Dignity
- Respectful care
- Privacy
- Patient involvement
- Trauma-informed approaches
Families & Carers
- Communication
- Appropriate involvement
- Discharge planning
- Continuity of care
Tackling Mental Health Inequalities
A mental health service cannot be considered fair simply because the same service technically exists for everybody.
Reform should look at whether different groups can actually access appropriate care and whether their outcomes differ.
Poverty & Deprivation
Financial stress, insecure housing and debt can affect mental wellbeing and people's ability to engage with treatment.
Race & Ethnicity
Mental Health Act reform and national campaigns have highlighted longstanding racial inequalities in detention and care.
Disability & Neurodivergence
Services need accessible communication and reasonable adjustments for disabled and neurodivergent people.
Children
Age should not result in children having to deteriorate before specialist support is available.
Location
Access should not depend excessively on postcode or whether a local service happens to have capacity.
Digital Exclusion
Digital services can improve access but should not leave people behind who cannot safely or easily use them.
AI, Digital Mental Health and Safety
Digital tools and artificial intelligence could improve access to information and support, but they also create new safety and accountability questions.
People in distress need clear information about what a digital service can and cannot safely do.
Safety
- Clinical safeguards
- Escalation for crisis
- Clear limitations
Data
- Privacy
- Consent
- Transparency
- Data security
Accountability
- Who designed the system?
- Who checks accuracy?
- Who is responsible when harm occurs?
In February 2026 Mind announced an AI and Mental Health Commission to examine potential benefits as well as risks, including use of AI as a substitute for therapy or crisis support.
Previous Campaigns That Helped Change the Conversation
Time to Change
Time to Change was a major mental-health anti-stigma campaign that helped encourage more open public discussion about mental health.
It is included here as an important historical campaign rather than being presented as one of today's live mental-health-system reform campaigns.
Mental Health System Accountability
Reform should be measurable.
Promises alone do not show whether services have improved.
Access
- Waiting times
- Referral acceptance
- Access thresholds
- Geographic variation
Quality
- CQC ratings
- Patient experience
- Clinical outcomes
- Continuity of care
Safety
- Serious incidents
- Deaths
- Restrictive practices
- Implementation of recommendations
Workforce
- Vacancies
- Retention
- Training
- Staff wellbeing
Spending
- Budget commitments
- Actual expenditure
- Local variation
- Value for money
Equality
- Ethnicity
- Age
- Disability
- Deprivation
- Regional differences
National and local mental health services should publish meaningful data in forms that patients, families, journalists and the wider public can understand and scrutinise.
Rights, Complaints and Independent Scrutiny
If somebody has concerns about mental health treatment, the correct route depends on the service, the issue and which part of the UK they are in.
NHS Complaint
Start with the NHS organisation or applicable national complaints process.
Care Quality Commission
CQC regulates health and social care services in England and uses information from people who use services as part of its regulatory work.
Ombudsman
In England, unresolved NHS complaints may eventually be considered by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman where its criteria are met.
Detention, capacity, discrimination, safeguarding and clinical-negligence issues can involve different procedures and time limits. Independent legal advice may be appropriate.
Lived Experience Must Be Part of Reform
People using services and the families supporting them often see weaknesses that are not visible in national performance tables.
People Tell Campaigners
“I asked for help when I first started struggling, but support wasn't available until I reached crisis point.”
“The waiting list was longer than I could cope with.”
Fragmentation
“I had to tell my story over and over again.”
“Nobody seemed responsible for my overall care.”
Workforce
“Staff were amazing, but they were clearly overwhelmed.”
“There simply aren't enough resources.”
The Reform Message
“Mental health should be treated as seriously as physical health.”
“Help should come before someone reaches breaking point.”
Personal accounts can identify patterns and questions requiring investigation, while wider conclusions should also be tested against clinical, regulatory, statistical and other evidence.
How You Can Help Bring Change
Share Your Experience
Lived experience can help identify where services work and where reform is needed.
Contact Your MP
Ask what they are doing to improve mental health prevention, waiting times, crisis support and patient safety.
Join Campaigns
Support campaigns whose aims reflect the changes you want to see.
Respond to Consultations
Government consultations provide formal opportunities to submit evidence before policy decisions are finalised.
Use Evidence
Refer to CQC reports, NHS statistics, government data, inquiries and published research when calling for reform.
Support Others
Signpost people to appropriate professional and crisis support when campaigning brings up difficult personal experiences.
Official Mental Health Reform & Evidence Sources
Government Reform
NHS Evidence
Regulator
Suicide Prevention
Wales
Northern Ireland
Campaign & Advocacy Directory
Mind
Rethink Mental Illness
Mental Health Foundation
YoungMinds
Samaritans
Centre for Mental Health
STOPS
UK Parliament Petition 764248
Time to Change Archive
Our Vision
Mental health care should be accessible, compassionate, timely, safe, inclusive and person-centred.
Nobody should be deliberately left to deteriorate until they reach crisis before appropriate help becomes available.
Nobody should repeatedly have to start from the beginning because services fail to communicate.
Nobody should receive poorer treatment because of disability, ethnicity, income, age, postcode or another protected or social characteristic.
Families and carers should be listened to where appropriate while respecting the rights, confidentiality and autonomy of the person receiving care.
Staff should have the time, training, workforce capacity and resources necessary to deliver safe and compassionate care.
Mental health impact should be considered in housing, welfare, justice, education, employment, debt, family services and other public policy — not only within the NHS.
Government strategies should contain measurable targets and should be followed by transparent reporting showing whether promised improvements actually happened.
Mental health matters. Prevention matters. Safety matters. Lived experience matters. Accountability matters. It's time for change.
Together We Can Build a Better Mental Health System
Share reliable information.
Support people to tell their stories safely.
Support credible campaigns.
Write to MPs and decision-makers.
Respond to consultations.
Challenge misinformation.
Ask for evidence when public bodies make claims about performance.
Keep pressure on governments to publish progress against their commitments.
Join us in calling for meaningful mental health system reform throughout the United Kingdom.
Right First Time UK — Information & Campaign Notice
Right First Time UK is an independent public-interest organisation providing information, awareness, campaigns and signposting.
We are not the NHS, Department of Health and Social Care, a mental health provider, crisis service, regulator, government body, law firm or clinical advice service.
References to external campaigns do not mean those organisations endorse or are formally affiliated with Right First Time UK.
Health systems and mental health law differ between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Always check the source relevant to where you live.
If you or somebody else is in immediate danger, call 999.
© 2026 Right First Time UK. Information checked and updated September 2026.