How local councils are shaping mentally healthier communities 

Andy Bell, Chief Executive of Centre for Mental Health, explores the vital role local councils play in supporting people’s mental health and shares how his organisation is working with councils to develop strategies, drive positive change, and ensure mental health remains a priority in local decision-making. 

The nation’s mental health is getting worse. That’s what the evidence is telling us, from prevalence surveys of young people and referral numbers to mental health services to national wellbeing measures, disability benefit claims and rates of school absence or sickness in workplaces. These all point in the same direction: rising levels of mental distress and mental ill health, lower wellbeing, and greater acuity or complexity among those who are seeking help. 

Local government is at the heart of responding to this situation and shifting the dial towards a mentally healthier future. Local councils in England are uniquely placed to understand the mental health needs of their communities and to create strategies and services to meet them. They bring together public health, social services, early years and youth services, and their powers relating to planning and economic development with their role in facilitating collaboration with the NHS, schools, businesses and others to find better ways of meeting people’s and communities’ needs. 

At Centre for Mental Health, we’re supporting local council staff and members through the Mentally Healthier Councils Network. It’s free to join and open to anyone with a role in local government. It provides a network of peers, regular updates, events and information to help councils to support better mental health. 

We know times are especially tough for local government right now. Financial pressures over many years have restricted councils’ spending powers, making it harder both to provide direct services to communities and to coordinate care and support with the NHS. Pooled budgeting arrangements that have stood for many years for adult mental health services have in some places come to an end. Public health services have been decimated by years of austerity, affecting mental health promotion, suicide prevention, and substance use services, among others. 

Despite this, through our network we see the positive ways local councils are seeking to create better mental health in the places they serve. The Better Mental Health Fund provided dozens of examples of initiatives designed to boost mental health in the most marginalised and disadvantaged communities. Some local councils have invested in early support hubs for young people, providing easily accessible help for 11-25 year olds: an idea that was included in the Government’s election manifesto last year for nationwide expansion. And through high quality mental health needs assessments, local councils are able to spur action to improve mental health services and address the causes of mental ill health.  

Local authority social services, in the meantime, are at the heart of addressing the social determinants of mental (and physical) health among people living with a mental illness. They help people with the basics of life: money to live on, a place to live in, safety from violence and abuse, and a decent standard of living. For too many people with a mental illness, these things are not guaranteed. Half live in food poverty. About a third are not in settled accommodation, and too many are unsafe in their homes and neighbourhoods. Local authority social services, and the voluntary and community organisations they fund, can help people living with mental health difficulties to live as equal citizens, and ensure their rights – including voting rights – are upheld and their needs met. They also have a crucial role in supporting families and carers, whose own needs are often forgotten and whose voices too frequently unheard. As health and care systems seek, once again, to shift support from hospital to the community, local councils are essential to achieving ‘care beyond beds’ for people with mental health difficulties.  

From the start of every life to end of life, local councils can use their powers, their resources, and their influence to boost people’s mental health. From reducing air pollution to alcohol licensing, and from stop smoking services to suicide prevention, they can take many crucial steps to improve mental wellbeing and prevent mental ill health. Putting the public’s mental health into every council policy, by simply asking the right questions, costs virtually nothing but can help to create better policies and decisions that benefit all of us.  

Local councils are working hard across the country to create mentally healthier places and communities. We want to support elected members and staff to make a difference, using the best evidence to enable collective learning and to share intelligence and ideas. Together, we can work towards a mentally healthier nation.