Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (2009) 15: 230-240. doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.106.003095
© 2009 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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Government policy and the National Service Framework for Mental Health: modelling and costing services in England

Jed Boardman and Michael Parsonage

Jed Boardman is senior lecturer in social psychiatry in the Health Service and Population Research Department at the Institute of Psychiatry, London, a consultant psychiatrist with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and a senior policy advisor for the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, London. His clinical interests lie in the development of community-based mental health services and his main research interests are in health services research, work, employment and social exclusion, and mental health policy. Dr Boardman is Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Scoping Group on Social Inclusion and Mental Health. Michael Parsonage is an economist who has been working as a senior policy advisor for the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health since December 2002. He previously worked as a senior economist in the Department of Health and in Her Majesty’s Treasury. His main research interests are in the application of economic analysis to issues relating to mental health policy, particularly in the areas of mental health and employment, and mental health and criminal justice.

Correspondence: Correspondence Dr Jed Boardman, Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, 134–138 Borough High Street, London SE1 1LB, UK. Email: jed.boardman{at}scmh.org.uk

The National Service Framework for Mental Health (NSF–MH), published by the Department of Health in 1999, set an ambitious 10-year agenda for improving mental healthcare for working-age adults in England, based on seven quality standards covering all major services. The NSF–MH was supported by a series of other policy documents published by the government. This article illustrates a means of modelling the government’s policy for adult mental health services to produce figures for the necessary services, staffing and financial resources required to meet the policy objectives. The findings of a report recently published by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, which undertook a detailed assessment of what needs to be done to deliver these standards in terms of service provision, staffing and funding, is summarised and its implications examined.