Claire Murdoch.

In The Loop: the BIG Questions

In their latest venture In the Loop, Niall and Roy turn to mental health and conduct the first interview with Claire Murdoch, NHS England’s outgoing mental health director since she dramatically resigned earlier this month after nearly ten years on the job. In the podcast, Claire says she quit because she felt she no longer had political support and reveals her dismay at the failure of the new government to maintain the share of NHS spend on mental health. In a strong defence of what has been achieved on her watch, including more than doubling the number of professional staff working in child and adolescent services, much improved access for young people, despite a huge increase in demand, and great progress on a nationwide roll out of mental health support in schools. Looking forward, she says the share of NHS spend has been phenomenally helpful and must be protected and that as far as she is concerned it was ‘job begun not job done’. But this discussion also reflects the reality of mental health care in England today with services desperately struggling to meet the explosion in demand and with patients of all ages unable to access the support and treatment they need.