Cllr. Paul Doughty, Conservative spokesperson for Health and Adult Social Care and chair of CYC’s Health Scrutiny Committee, has welcomed the 2016/17 budget commitment for a planned £100,000 annual investment in community based mental health services. The funds will be used to help safeguard and develop services at Sycamore House, the mental health centre on Clarence Street which delivers early-intervention services and employment support.
Cllr. Doughty said, “Labour cut funds from adult social care and hid them on their so-called “transformation programme”, which was supposed to deliver savings which never happened. These cuts were deferred to this year’s budget, but our new Conservative-led administration has instead doubled-down and remedied Labour’s cuts with an increased commitment to community mental health services.
“York has recently experienced what happens when mental health services have not been robust enough to withstand scrutiny from from regulatory bodies, and therefore it is of utmost importance that we work with our current partners to improve the resilience of our mental health services in the community.
“This expenditure helps secure the future of Sycamore House and allows us to work confidently towards developing enhanced services for the future.”