One in 10 posts in specialist mental health services are vacant, and Brexit is set to make recruitment more difficult, according to research released this week by the Mental Health Network of the NHS Confederation, which represents NHS-funded mental health and learning disability service providers in England.

The two key areas most likely to be adversely affected are workforce and research, warns the network.

Commenting on the research, David Cook, managing director at healthcare recruiter National Locums, said: “The shortages outlined by the Mental Health Network are regrettably true, and are one reason why we have set up a specialist mental health division to supply locum and permanent psychotherapists – who are in particular short supply, psychologists, psychiatrists and support staff.

"One of the issues is that different mental health units have different expectations of locums, which are not always easy to establish in advance of the booking. Similarly, there is a need for additional training for mental health staff, such as PMVA (Preventing and Managing Violence and Aggression). We are looking to deliver that ourselves, just as we deliver some training for doctors and nurses working in other disciplines."

Meanwhile, Olivia Spruce, chief operating officer at healthcare staffing specialist Positive Healthcare, says this sector has suffered traditionally from an imbalance between addressing workforce recruitment and retention issues, respectively.

“Although last year Jeremy Hunt announced ambitious plans to improve staff training, and the investment of more funds into the recruitment of new specialists into the mental health sector, retention issues were never seriously addressed with any robust strategy,” she said.

“No enduring hope was offered to this seriously strained workforce, where staff morale is at an all-time low due to ever increasing workloads, low pay and under-staffing. Inevitably, the failure to address this in any tangible way leads to patients being failed, which in turn puts more strain on an increasingly fragile system.”