4 takeaways from the APPG on the mental health of the NHS workforce

Three McPin team members from across the research, patient and public involvement (PPI) and communications teams, were recently invited to join the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on mental health in London. 

The event was around the mental health of the NHS workforce, and we were keen to hear what the panellists and MPs would say. 

What is the APPG on mental health?

An All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) is an informal group made up of Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of the House of Lords from across the political parties.  

The members all share an interest in the APPG’s policy area – in this case, mental health – and often involve charities and external organisations. 

The aim of the APPG on mental health is to inform parliamentarians about issues relating to mental health, and advocate for policies which will improve mental health in the UK. 

Chaired by MP Sojan Joseph, the APPG is supported by Rethink Mental Illness and The Royal College of Psychiatrists.  

The mental health of the NHS workforce

During the event speakers explored the challenges facing the NHS and wider health and social care workforce delivering mental health services.  

The line-up offered different perspectives on the issue: official bodies representing social work, as well as nursing and psychiatry, alongside individuals talking about lived experience, the charity sector and NHS Trust leadership.  

Panellists discussed how current policy developments – including the NHS 10 Year Plan and the forthcoming NHS Workforce Plan – might help tackle some of the current challenges, which are significant.  

You can’t support patients with their mental health if the workforce is under-resourced and poorly managed. Speakers were asked to be solution-focused, which was a tough ask in the face of the current difficulties.  

Key themes of the day were capacity (not enough people in post across a range of grades and disciplines), and the impact this had on workforce wellbeing and patient outcomes. 

The knock-on consequences – including long waiting times, increased hospitalisations, suicide attempts, and a worrying rise in people leaving the workforce – were all highlighted, and appeared in Rethink’s recent 2025 Right Treatment, Right Time report.   

‘Numbers are lives, patients are people’

The reality of all of this was brought to life by campaigner and expert by experience Molly, who shared her powerful story of trying to access mental health support. 

Molly talked about how she’d needed treatment as a child but had been missed by the NHS, and only managed to get a mental health diagnosis and support when she moved abroad in her late teens, saying, “I was forced to fend for myself.” 

She then also struggled to get the same level of care when she moved back to the UK, and only began to get some support when she happened to find a charity near where she was living that offered trauma services. 

Molly shared that the consequences of a lack of support had been devastating: she’d felt like she was doomed to live without hope, and ultimately tried to take her own life. 

Her speech began with “Numbers are lives, patients are people,” and concluded that long waiting lists – tied up with a struggling workforce – “put lives like mine at risk”. 

Hearing from Molly and the rest of the speakers, several key things kept coming up again and again.

1. Skills mix

The panel raised the importance of a mix of skills and representation across the different levels of the workforce. 

They said that it takes time to train psychiatrists, Approved Mental Health Providers (AMPs) and nurses; while the number of core training places have increased there needs to be a plan for retaining higher level workers and a pipeline to ensure ongoing training without “bottlenecks in the system”.  

An increasing lack of specialists was a concern for areas such as Eating Disorders and Addiction, plus there needs to be strong supervision structures for new roles, which are often absent. The line ‘Growth is not keeping up with demand or complexity’ stood out. 

After attending the event, McPin Senior Public Involvement in Research Officer Alex Kenny said: 

“I was sad to hear about the aging population of professionals. With psychiatrists retiring there is no one to train new entrants on the role. This also includes peer support workers and psychologists who were needed ten years ago.  

“The research was listened to but now a new problem is presented of no one to train these newly qualified professionals on the role.” 

One proposed solution was technology, which is lagging behind other health areas. Used well, digital systems will increase efficiency and support the workforce in their roles.  

We therefore need investment in digital systems and more technical skills within the workforce to help manage caseloads. Better use of data to help with regional planning, to ensure areas of the country don’t get left behind.  

2. A joined-up approach, recognising increasing complexity of mental health challenges

Long waiting lists can lead to staff leaving the workforce, people in crisis, and suicide attempts. This needs a holistic, joined-up approach from different sectors and across different services, said the panel.  

Joining up with the charity sector and Local Authorities, as well as education and beyond, and looking at the use of community services, peer support and mental health navigators, could help ease some of the pressures on the individual workforces.  

There was a lot of talk about the community transformation programme from 2019 and the new neighbourhood pilots, but these will take many years to achieve sustained change because it requires a culture shift (see our recent paper and the community mental health knowledge exchange website).  

Molly raised a key point that pilots testing these types of community support can be useful but must “collaborate with the local community rather than going in and ‘saving’ them”.  

Advance Choice Documents (ACDs) – which are drawn up with people to share their wishes if they go into a mental health crisis – were also mentioned as a way to get patients’ voices heard, but it was flagged that not all healthcare workers have easy access to these. 

3. The need to hear from diverse lived experience voices

Ultimately, solutions to the current NHS workforce shortage, and long waiting lists and rising rates of suicide, cannot progress without the voices and stories of people with lived experience of these issues – both within the workforce and the communities they’re supporting. 

Listening to the personal stories of workers is vital for informing any plans going forward.  

Mental health waiting lists are currently skewed towards young people, so it’s vital that young people’s voices are heard. 

4. Better workforce wellbeing = better outcomes for patients

Throughout the event, the panel kept coming back to the fact – apart from supporting our healthcare workforces being the right thing to do – a happier, healthier workforce would lead to better outcomes for patients.  

Katherine Lofthouse, Senior Research Communicator at McPin, was at the APPG, and agrees:  

“My sister’s a nurse and it’s such a demanding job that, if the resources and support aren’t there, the consequences can be devastating. I saw the impact working during Covid had on her. We’re not in the depths of a pandemic anymore, but there are still serious challenges making their work feel impossible.  

“It’s a recipe for burnout, which is dangerous – both for our loved ones in the workforce and for any of us requiring healthcare.”  

The solutions are not unknowns

At the end of the event our Research Director Vanessa spoke to another attendee reflecting on how the solutions are not unknowns.  

There have been a lot of positive developments in mental health in recent years but scale up from pilots to national coverage has always been a challenge driving the post-code lottery for provision.  

However, the key ingredients for the NHS workforce and a thriving mental health system are not out of reach – we do know what is needed.  

The question is, how can we put them in place when the constant reality for patients and staff alike is restructures and re-organisation that takes us further from the joined-up neighbourhood models the policy documents describe? 

“APPG meetings are great to put into perspective our work at McPin,” said Vanessa.  

“Having policy makers and parliamentarians in active respectful dialogue, we can see how our work fits in and it motivates us to do more, helping us to link with other charities campaigning for change.  

“It is also a reminder of the challenges facing the mental health system with a government looking for cost savings, but our services are in need of sustained investment and development.”