Guidance map / Mental health and learning disabilities guidance and resources map

Mental health and learning disabilities services are experiencing increasing pressure on services, and face challenges of managing workforce issues, waiting times, data inconsistencies and cost pressures to deliver responsive and high quality services within budget. The Mental Health Investment Standard has raised expectations of funding growth, as a proportion of current mental health spend within an integrated care board, but without specific reference to demand on existing services. The concept of parity of esteem for mental health services still awaits a definitive NHS meaning and role. The data landscape remains less consistent than that for acute services, with further development of currencies for data collection in progress. 

Against this background the HFMA has undertaken a full refresh of this resource map to highlight the most up-to-date material from across healthcare systems and think tanks. Aimed primarily at NHS finance professionals working in or interested in delivery or commissioning of mental health and learning disabilities services, it provides a quick reference guide to key documents and useful case study examples, as well as other resources. The map is structured such that it can easily signposting users to the sections most relevant to their role or area of interest.

The map will be updated periodically as new guidance, case studies and resources are produced.  If you would like to flag additional material to be included in the next update of this map, please contact [email protected].