The 10 Year Health Plan for England – the devil will be in the detail

- Debbie Laycock – Head of Policy, Public Affairs and Campaigns

Yesterday (03/07/25) was a big day. The day that we have all been waiting for. Well, everyone who works in health policy perhaps.

The day the Government launched its 10 Year Health Plan for England – Fit for the Future. But was it worth the wait? And what does it mean for suicide prevention?

First up. It actually heroes prevention. One of the major aims of the plan is the move from treatment to prevention – to focus efforts on those things that can keep us healthy in the first place. And importantly, the plan reflects the impact that other things in our lives can have on our health, such as access to employment, and the need to focus on people's wellbeing, including thinking about our mental health, from a young age.

There are welcome commitments on mental health. 85 new mental health emergency departments – open 24 hours a day, seven days a week – and self-referral to talking therapies, which will hopefully increase people’s access to vital support when they need it.

Another major focus is on moving healthcare from the hospital into the community with the “Neighbourhood Health Service”, providing a one-stop shop for patient care. New neighbourhood health centres will also provide important services like debt advice and employment support, which should increase opportunities to identify someone who is in crisis and help them get the support they need, recognising the relationship between financial security, mental health and suicide.

It is clear that suicide is an inequality issue and a theme throughout the plan is the need to address the disparity in health outcomes that are so stark within and between communities. This includes geographical inequality. The plan makes clear that the way health funding is distributed will be relooked at, with more money flowing to areas of greatest need. This may help areas, including the North West and North East of England that see the highest rates of suicide.

It is also positive that the role of voluntary sector organisations like Samaritans is mentioned as organisations like ours provide critical support to millions of people across the country.  The plan aims to achieve much closer and more joined up working between services provided by the NHS and charities.

All this sounds good but will it lead to the Government achieving its goal of tackling suicide as one of the biggest killers in England?

Suicide prevention is only specifically mentioned in two places in the plan – one very broad statement that a focus on improving the safety and quality of services will achieve the Government's commitment on suicide; and the suggestion that “new digital tools, digitised therapies and real-time suicide surveillance will improve mental health and reduce suicide rates.”

Not quite the comprehensive plan to tackle suicide we’d hoped for. But in recent weeks it has been made clear that the plan wasn’t going to include detail. This will come later! As they say, the devil will now be in that, there, detail. We have the existing Government national suicide prevention strategy and the men's health strategy coming later this year. We need to now understand how these all fit together with the implementation of the new 10 year plan.

When you focus on suicide prevention you also soon realise that it is not just about health services. Yes, this was a Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) “health” plan. But we also need DHSC to be doing much more to hold other government departments to account on the essential role they must play if we are to tackle suicide. From the Home Office tackling access to the means of suicide, to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology stepping up its focus on online safety.

As we mark one year since this Government was elected we are yet to see progress on suicide prevention or a clear articulation of how it will meet its commitment to tackle deaths from suicide. Is suicide prevention on the government’s priority list for action? Through the implementation of this 10 year plan we will push to make sure it is...