Box 3 Summary of recent freedom of information requests and survey findings
From: Specialist mental health services in England in 2014: overview of funding, access and levels of care
A minimum of 1711 mental health beds have been closed since April 2011, including 277 between April and August 2013. This is a 9 % reduction in the total number of mental health beds—18,924—available in 2011/12. | |
A 2013 survey of members of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Faculty was carried out 77 % of respondents to a 2013 survey of members of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Faculty about their experience of admitting young people to inpatient unit reported difficulties in accessing admissions to inpatient beds. 79.1 % respondents reported safeguarding concerns/incidents whilst waiting for a bed; 76.5 % reported young people with unacceptably high risk profiles being managed in the community due to lack of beds; 61.9 % reported young people being held in inappropriate settings [37] | |
Freedom of information data from 30 trusts, reported the number of patients sent out of area has more than doubled between 2011/2 and 2013/14 (1301 in 2011/12 to 3024 in 2012/3). The costs associated with this reported by 23 Trusts show an increase in expenditure from £21.1 m in 2011/12 to £38.3 m in 2012/13 |