Pilots 'to reduce mental health hospital admissions'

NHS England says the six pilots will share £1.8m to look at reducing the use of out-of-area hospital placements in particular as well as boost local community care.

Two areas will focus on improving local crisis support to prevent hospital admissions, while four will look to relocate young people currently in out-of-area secure mental health facilities back to their local community.

Each area will involve a partnership of NHS mental health trusts, private providers and charities, who will share a local budget.

NHS England's national director for mental health, Claire Murdoch, said: "Today's action will help ensure that patients are treated as close to home as possible, and help reduce the need to send some of our most vulnerable young people miles across the country to receive vital treatment."

All sites have started work this week and have to produce a plan of action by December, setting out targets for reducing hospital admissions and how local community services will be able to cope with the extra workload involved.

Those areas taking part are the West Midlands, South London, Thames Valley & Wessex, South West, West London and the North East & North Yorkshire.

This latest announcement comes days after NHS England announced an additional £25m had been allocated to clinical commissioning groups to improve mental health services for children and young people.

Figures published earlier this year showed the number of young people with mental health problems treated outside their local area rose 28 per cent last year.