What happened on 26th July 2023 - With your comments in the Web

On Wednesday, the BBC reported that police in England will attend fewer mental health calls.

The government says the policy could save a million hours of police time every year. Senior officers say forces have "lost their way" by dealing with less serious mental health problems.

But mental health charities say they are "deeply worried" at what could be a "dangerous" change. At the moment, some police forces in England and Wales attend 80% of so-called health and social care incidents.

It is expected this will be reduced to between 20 and 30% within the next two years, under the plans.

The government says it is providing an extra £1bn a year, including £150m for facilities to replace police officers, including:

• specialist mental health ambulances
• extra capacity for treating patients
• "crisis cafes", where people struggling to cope can drop in for help

And 999-call handlers are being trained to assess a request for officers to attend and decide whether:

• someone's life is at risk
• there is a threat to the public
• a possible crime is being committed

But Mind chief executive Dr Sarah Hughes said mental health services were "not resourced to step up overnight".

 The users were doubtful about this news.

"I can see both sides of the argument, but it is definitely the task of mental health assessors for most of these mental health calls. Maybe the actions of the police force will force the Gov't to give the necessary funding to facilitate this, and not the meagre amounts, or in many cases less money, to help solve this worrying problem."

"So this must mean that the government are going to fund mental health services instead? Right?" - "

I think they said they will right after they've built 40 new hospitals and millions of new homes. We've obviously still got the 350 million a week in extra funding to come as well!

Also, if anyone reading this is stuck and in poor health then the answer is simple. You just need to take a walk, run a bath and make a cup of tea. The police and government know this and that's why they've withdrawn their services."

"Just waiting for an assessment by a call handler to be wrong and a parent killing all their children and themselves. Also has there been any data on the impact on mental health services in those police forces that have trailed this policy?"

This day as well, the FT informed that Treasury on course to spend 10% of government revenue on bond costs this year, according to forecast by Fitch.

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The UK is on track to incur the highest debt interest costs in the developed world this year as persistently high inflation and an unusually large proportion of government bonds linked to price rises damage the public finances. The Treasury will spend £110bn on debt interest in 2023, according to a forecast by Fitch. At 10.4 per cent of total government revenue, that would be the highest level of any high-income country — the first time the UK has topped the data set that goes back to 1995 — after an improvement by the previous leader Iceland. Roughly a quarter of UK government debt is in the form of so-called index-linked bonds, whose payouts fluctuate in line with inflation, making the country a huge outlier internationally. Italy has the next highest share with 12 per cent of its bonds tied to inflation, while most countries have less than 10 per cent.

 

 

Many British readers agreed that "UK economy has been mismanaged for years … sadly too few seem to care .. probably in part because it’s a non-woke issue. Expect high interest rate on next 1/4 trillion in gilts raised will weigh heavily on economic performance for years to come."

 

"The British voted for Brexit, the British are for war with Russia, you reap what you sow. The economy will literally get trashed more and more and it is obvious that the UK will go down and down in the years ahead. The big players are the big countries"

 

"Your perennial reminder that the last four Tory Governments have done more debt spending than all previous Parliaments combined. And what have you got for it? A shitty, broken, tired, sick country, but a lot of Tories and their donors are doing very well for themselves, thank you."

 

"They spent how many months claiming that the 35% demand from doctors was some totally unreasonable sum no government would ever possibly consent to spend. And then immediately went ahead and spent about the same kind of money on these fucking refugee barges, apparently without even checking to see if they'd actually be able to dock in their intended ports.

You just couldn't make it up. It is unavoidable how badly the press is failing us here. If they were not just beholden to repeating the government's lines for fear of being black-listed from future interviews, they might actually, y'know, inform the British public and we might not wind up with apparently no one really knowing what the fuck is going on."

Also on Wednesday, the government's plan to expand funded childcare for working parents "will not work" unless the amount paid to providers is right, MPs have warned.

Underfunding had left the sector "straining to provide" enough places for children, the Education Committee report found. Early-years charities have welcomed the inquiry's focus on the challenges facing the sector.

The government says it is increasing the amount it pays childcare providers. Working parents of three- and four-year-olds are eligible for 30 hours of government-funded childcare during term time - but by September 2025, this will be extended to cover children aged nine months and above.

 "Or we stop subsidising employers and set a realistic minimum wage that people can actually afford to live on."

"Childcare will still be expensive for people in minimum wage. If you need 1 person on minimum wage plus overheads to look after 3 kids, then 3 people on minimum wage will struggle to afford to pay that other person's minimum wage without extra support."

"They knew this when they announced this as a pledge. Realistically, the Tory’s won’t be in power when this comes into force, so it will just be another thing that Labour has “failed to deliver”, when it’s actually the Tories fuck up."