£343m expansion of community mental health centres will only work if staffed by psychologists, professional body warns

The UK government has announced £343m for up to 159 new NHS mental health facilities in England: 100 walk-in community mental health centres requiring no referral, and 59 dedicated mental health emergency departments Guidance. First sites are due to open in autumn 2026, with further sites following from March 2027. The stated aim is to give people in mental health crisis and distress a route into care that does not run through a general emergency department.

The British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology publicly welcomed the funding, but was explicit that the programme’s success depends on how the new centres are staffed, not on the estate itself: centres need practitioner psychologists, not psychiatric or nursing staff alone, if they are to deliver the intended model of care.

This is a national funding commitment with a stated staffing precondition attached by the profession most directly implicated in delivering it. Whether new-build community mental health centres reduce reliance on general emergency departments for mental health crises will depend on workforce decisions made well after the estate is commissioned — a question for local mental health service planning as sites are allocated over the coming year, rather than one this announcement itself answers.