Mental health: Ministers are accused of abandoning commitments after scrapping 10 year plan

England’s health and social care secretary, Steve Barclay, has defended the government’s commitment to mental health after it was criticised for scrapping plans for a dedicated 10 year strategy.

Last week the government announced a new major conditions strategy for England,1 to shape care policy for the growing number of people with multiple long term conditions. It will cover mental health conditions alongside cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, dementia, and musculoskeletal disorders.

But leading mental health charities and social enterprises said that subsuming mental health into a wider strategy was a betrayal of the government’s promise to develop a standalone plan and that it would fail to tackle …