The Government is set to crack down on ‘unregulated private sector’ therapists and counsellors, primary care minister Stephen Kinnock has announced at a conference in London.
In answer to a GP delegate’s question at our sister title Pulse’s conference yesterday, he said he was ‘very worried that there are diagnoses being given out by the private independent sector which are not rooted in clinical expertise’.
He added that ‘demand just continues to go through the roof’ partly as a result of these private sector counsellors and therapists.
It comes after health secretary Wes Streeting suggested that mental health is overdiagnosed in an interview on BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
After being asked about what the Government was doing to reform mental health provision, Mr Kinnock restated the Government’s pledge to recruit more mental health professionals.
He said: ‘We are going forward with our manifesto commitment to recruit 8,500 more mental health specialists across the country. And we’re also putting a mental health practitioner, specialist, trained practitioner into every school in the country. That program is being rolled out and being led by my colleague, Baroness Merron.’
He doubled down on Mr Streeting’s comments around overdiagnosis, and placed the blame for overdiagnosis on private sector counsellors.
He said: ‘I think the Secretary of State alluded to that in his interview with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, and I think that we’ve got to get on top of this, and we’re absolutely committed to do so.
‘Because if we put 8,500 more mental health specialists in, and specialists in schools, and the other measures the Government seeking to take, and yet demand just continues to go through the roof – partly because people are being diagnosed in a way that isn’t rooted in clinical expertise – then you know you’ve got a real problem.
‘I think that we’ve got an issue with an unregulated private sector. I’ve really been quite struck by how easy it is to set yourself up as a counsellor or the therapist and start charging for it. When you look at countries like Sweden or the Netherlands, other countries, you have to have six years of training before you can set yourself up on that basis.
‘I am also very worried that there are diagnoses being given out by the private independent sector which are not rooted in clinical expertise, and that is an issue. I have commissioned my officials to look at that.’
The Government is looking to reduce the number of people on disability payments – Personal independent payments (PIP) – and Mr Kinnock said that this was connected to the numbers of people with mental health problems.
He said: ‘The numbers waiting for support and diagnosis are huge, the challenges that we have around the impact that it’s having on the workforce.
‘One of the big stories of this week has been the number of people who are economically inactive because they can’t because they’ve got issues with their mental health and can’t work as a result.
‘So this is an issue that’s really holding our country back. It’s really bad for the people who are suffering. It’s really bad for the economy. It’s putting massive pressure on our health and care system.’
Mr Streeting said on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: ‘I think definitely there’s an overdiagnosis, but there’s too many people being written off and… too many people who just aren’t getting the support they need. So if you can get that support to people much earlier, then you can help people to either stay in work or get back to work.’
It comes as the Government announced changes to the welfare system, in a bid to take more people off disability benefits, which it says has ‘skyrocketed’ in recent years.
In the same session, Mr Kinnock stressed the Government’s commitment to the GP partnership model following the news that it has agreed to agree a major new contract by 2028.
Last week, it was revealed that NHS England was to be abolished. Its leaders had previously warned a financial reset was coming to ‘get a grip’ on the situation.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse.
