RCPsych in Parliament
Our public affairs team work with parliamentarians, arms lengths bodies and other political stakeholders to champion mental health and psychiatry in Westminster and beyond.
Our manifesto
In the run-up to the 2024 General Election, we have published Preventing mental illness: Our manifesto for the next UK general election.
It calls upon political parties to commit to preventing mental illness and outlines why mental health must be prioritised ahead of the next General Election.
It sets out five priority areas:
- Reducing the occurrence and, therefore, the prevalence of severe mental illness
- Reversing the mental health crisis
- Achieving parity of esteem between physical and mental health
- Supporting the mental health workforce
- Equitably funding mental health research and data collection to improve understanding and facilitate innovation.
Parliamentary briefings
Our parliamentary briefings will let you know what the College thinks about the key policies being discussed in Parliament.
For more information on any of our briefings, please email Peter Hand.
All Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health
We help coordinate this cross-party group of MPs and Peers who have a particular interest in promoting the mental health agenda in Parliament.
The group regularly hosts events to:
- hold the Government to account on their mental health strategy
- inform other parliamentarians about key mental health policy issues
- call on NHS organisations, health professionals, research bodies and people with experience of mental illness to give evidence at their meetings.
On Wednesday 15 January 2025 the group held its Inaugural Meeting. During the meeting, the group elected Sojan Joseph MP as the chair of the APPG. The list of officers in the APPG are as follows:
- Chair – Sojan Joseph MP, Labour
- Officer – Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, Conservative
- Officer – Chris Webb MP, Labour
- Officer – Lord Davies Of Brixton , Labour
We provide secretariat for the group along with Rethink. For further information about the group and about any upcoming events, please email Peter Hand. More information on the APPG can be found on the Register Of All-Party Parliamentary Groups.
Parliamentary scholar scheme
This scheme gives the chance for higher speciality trainee psychiatrists (ST4-6) to spend one day a week as part of their special interest session at the House of Lords.
Successful candidates work with Peers with an interest in mental health and learning disability to develop the skills to influence mental health policy.
We run an annual recruitment process for trainees to take part in the scheme. If you would like more information, please email Peter Hand.
Political Week
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