According to the Department of Health, in about 10 years, for the first time, there has been a decline in government spending on mental health services.

In 2011 and this year, there was a one per cent decline in spending on services for working age adults, as seen by the national survey of mental health investment making it £6.62 billion. And since 2001 and 2002 this has happened for the first time.

It was also seen that there was a fall in spending in two of three priority service areas for mental health. There was an 8.5 per cent fall in assertive outreach investment and also spending on crisis resolution/home treatment fell by 4.3 per cent. It was also seen that there was a five per cent boost with early intervention.

It was warned by social workers that there was an increasing pressure on frontline staff when it comes to disinvestment in mental health services at a time of growing demand for support.

Joe Godden, professional officer at BASW, said, "The demands of working with only those in high level need puts emotional pressures on social workers and also usually leads to an increase in bureaucracy as the whole system of allocation of resources is constantly subject to greater management control."