NHS Five Year Forward View for Mental Health: Policy and Evaluation

Policy and Evaluation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
BACKGROUND ...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The policy selected for the basis of this essay is the NHS five year forward view for
mental health. This essay looks discusses the history and evolution of mental health policy in UK
along with key elements of the NHS five year forward view for mental health and any gaps in the
policy. In addition to this stakeholder mapping of the policy and the role of policy in addressing
health equity and inequalities issues is also covered in this essay. This essay also discusses
implementation and evaluation of effectiveness of NHFS five year forward view for mental
health.
BACKGROUND
Policy refers to the course of action adopted to guide decision making and achieve
rational outcomes. NHS five year forward view for mental health was published in the year 2016
which includes various recommendations focusing on mental health improvement which as
welcomed by the UK government with an investment of £1 million to achieve the
recommendation by the year 2021 (Ali and McGarry, 2019). NHS England released an
implementation plan to deliver recommendations in 2016 and workforce strategy was created by
the Health secretary in 2017 for achieving the few year plan for mental health. Policy cycle
describes the process of initial development of an idea to assessment of outcome and includes
five stages agenda setting, policy formation, decision making, implementation and evaluation.
The five year forward view for mental health is currently in implementation phase which will
end after 2021. Policy analysis evaluation plays an important role in gaining effective results as
it involves systematic collection of information to make judgements about outcome of various
domains of policy cycle. Mental health is highly important topic in public health. This is because
every individuals is affected by some mental health issues during their lifetime. The
epidemiological statistics that showcase prevalence of common mental health disorders in
16.9% of population of England aged 16 or above. 54.5% of social care users in England suffer
from depression and anxiety (Mental Health and Wellbeing JSNA, 2018). This depicts the urgent
need of effective healthcare policies to tackle mental health issues faced by public in UK. An
effective public health policy related to mental health which effectively informs policy process is
necessary in improving individual, family, community and population well-being.
1

MAIN BODY
The history of mental health policy in UK dates back to the 18th century with the
Madhouses Act, 1774 addressing mental health issues which included creation of privately
funded lunatic asylums in United Kingdom. The NHS five year forward view of mental health
proposed by NHS in the year 2016 takes much more inclusive and humanistic approach to
mental health issues in comparison to initial Madhouses Act. This policy has evolved to focus on
mental health of children and young people, suicide prevention tackling inequalities in
improving mental health for all public (Bailey, 2019). This is positive evolution as scientific and
humanistic approach to mental well-being of the public. The reason for the evolution of mental
health policy in UK in such direction is increased mental health awareness in the general public
and high demand to cope with negative impact of mental health issues faced by individuals in
current era.
The primary political factor which affected development of NHS five year froward view
of mental health is the care sector and NHS reforms which will be paid by increased in health
and social care tax (Boris Johnson outlines new 1.25% health and social care tax to pay for
reforms, 2021). The positive influence of this factor on the five year forward view is that it will
increase funding for achieving various recommendation while the negative influence on
development of the policy is that increased taxation will negatively affects access to healthcare
for many individuals. The economical factor of economic decline of UK because of COVID-19
affected the development of the policy. The positive influence was that this resulted in
highlighting the significance of mental health while the negative influence of this economic
factor on development of NHS five year forward plan is that it has shifted the focus of the UK
health care system from mental health improvement to COVID-19 prevention as it is the primary
priority. The social factor which influenced the development of this policy are the increasing
cases of mental illnesses in UK. The positive influence is that it helped increase support for this
policy by the government as it was necessary to solve mental health crisis in UK (Bhugra and et.
al., 2018). The negative influence is that it limited the scope of the policy as the main focus of
the policy was improvement of mental health of UK public with less focus taking measures to
lower mental health cases and take proactive steps against mental health issues in UK. The
cultural factor influencing the development of the NHS five year forward plan in UK was the
increased mental health awareness among youth and lack of mental health knowledge among
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