At yesterday’s Public Accounts Committee meeting at Stormont, the Mental Health Champion for Northern Ireland, Professor Siobhan O'Neill, highlighted findings from RCPsych in NI’s workforce surveys.
Ahead of the meeting, Professor O'Neill requested evidence from the College on Northern Ireland's psychiatric workforce. In response, RCPsych in NI provided a detailed briefing paper outlining the scale of workforce pressures across mental health services.
During her opening address, Professor O’Neill said:
“The recent survey by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Northern Ireland found that nearly three quarters of Northern Ireland psychiatrists were considering employment outside their trusts, and a quarter said that they might leave within the next year... while only 7% believed that government policy sufficiently supported their work.
“We have not yet secured the workforce investment and cross-government commitment needed to turn ambition into reality. Unless we close that gap, the promises of the mental health strategy and the neighbourhood model will remain out of reach.
“This means investing in our workforce, improving access to care, tackling the wider causes of poor mental health and ensuring that our people have the right support in the right place at the right time. Only then will we deliver the person-centred, recovery-focused system the people across Northern Ireland deserve.”
This echoes the College’s three key policy priorities, outlined in its manifesto (PDF) for the upcoming 2027 Northern Ireland Assembly election:
- Build a sustainable mental health workforce
- Deliver equitable mental health services for all
- Tackle health inequalities
With almost a third (32%) of senior psychiatrist posts currently vacant across Northern Ireland, the College emphasised that workforce shortages raise serious concerns about the ability of services to meet growing demand.
Within her address, Professor O’Neill cited findings from a 2025 RCPsych in NI membership survey, which found that 89% of psychiatrists have experienced or witnessed moral injury – the distress caused by system pressures preventing healthcare professionals from providing the standard of care they believe patients need.
The College’s briefing paper highlighted the growing reliance on temporary staff and the need for this expenditure to be directed towards building a permanent workforce. This was also addressed by the Mental Health Champion:
Professor O’Neill said “The annual expenditure on psychiatry locums is estimated at over 11 million, and that includes approximately 8.6 million in locum psychiatrist consultants. This is equivalent to the cost of 56 substantive posts, so we're squandering money here, and this is not the right way to be doing things.”
In her closing remarks, Professor O’Neill said: “I think Northern Ireland has made progress in identifying the workforce requirements and structures that we need for the reform of mental health services, but resources are now needed to deliver the workforce review, and those resources are not as yet secured.”
The Mental Heath Champion asked the Committee to focus on five priorities, the first of which was investment in workforce expansion and training places. The Champion highlighted the need to address recruitment and retention gaps, particularly in rural areas and to reduce reliance on locums.
The other priorities included improving timely access to treatment, including CAMHS and psychological therapies, increasing funding for mental health services and reducing waiting times. Professor O’Neill emphasised the importance of effectively implementing the children's emotional health and wellbeing frameworks, which she described as strong policies.
Addressing poverty, disability, and the social determinants of mental health was also identified as a priority, alongside developing a funded cross-departmental supported housing plan. This would be jointly led by Health and Housing, with clear responsibilities and measurable outcomes.
The final priority was delivering the Mental Health Strategy, and a neighbourhood model of care through coordinated investment across health, social care, housing, education and justice.
Professor O’Neill also used her closing remarks to reinforce the need for sustained investment in the mental health workforce.
“We need to prevent avoidable illness and support children early to ensure that everyone has a safe home and timely access to appropriate support. The cost of inaction extends beyond public expenditure to avoidable crisis, delayed recovery, lost economic participation and the suffering of people unable to access the help they need.”
RCPsych in NI is urging policymakers to develop a long-term workforce strategy that expands training capacity, improves recruitment and retention, reduces avoidable reliance on agency staffing and builds a larger, more resilient psychiatry workforce for Northern Ireland.
For further information, please contact:
- Email: press@rcpsych.ac.uk
- Out-of-hours contact number: 07860 755896