Inspire Public Affairs Update 08/12/25

Inspire’s public affairs update is your source for the latest Northern Ireland Assembly discussions relevant to mental health, addiction, intellectual disability and autism. 

Our aim is to inform the public, our colleagues and the people who use Inspire services about pertinent issues in the political space, issues that should always be informed by the voice of lived experience. 

On 1st December, MLAs debated a motion relating to how health service failings are placing pressures on the PSNI.

• Introducing the Alliance Party motion, Nuala McAllister MLA highlighted the strain on policing caused by gaps in mental health crisis services and calls on the Health Minister to implement the Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) model proactively: “Policing has become very much baked into the everyday public sector response to unmet Health demand.”
• She said that police officers are left to respond to mental health crises, instead of healthcare professionals, and that they are forced into making clinical decisions without authority or training.
• She suggested that delivering the mental health strategy and implementing RCRP is essential to reducing police burden, improve care for individuals in crisis and ensure resources are used effectively.
• Keith Buchanan MLA signalled the DUP’s support for the motion and pointed out that the PSNI is increasingly serving as a substitute health service, which is not its role. Without proper funding, he said, response times will slow, officer numbers will fall and communities will be left vulnerable.
• He stated that policing is fundamental, not optional.
• Linda Dillon MLA said that the PSNI is simply not in a position to provide therapeutic or clinical support.
• She added: “For Sinn Féin… the issue is fundamentally about outcomes for the person and ensuring that they receive the required care. When someone is in the midst of a mental health emergency or personal crisis, the question that we must ask is simple: who is the best person to help them?”
• In her view, RCRP and the mental health strategy must be urgently implemented to ensure dignity, safety and proper care for individuals, while allowing the PSNI to focus on its own remit.
• Opposing the motion on behalf of the UUP, Alan Chambers MLA stressed that health service pressures include an ageing population, rising child mental health complexities, learning disability, social care and higher clinical standards.
• He contended that calls to prioritise the Mental Health Strategy must acknowledge trade-offs. “Responsible government requires care, sequencing and realism, not bulldozing your way towards an artificial deadline because it suits a particular political narrative that some are trying to paint,” he said.
• Colin McGrath described under-resourced community mental health teams, delays in implementing the mental health strategy and inconsistent out-of-hours provision as drivers of a situation in which the police are holding the system together.
• He confirmed the SDLP’s endorsement of RCRP. “However, for the model to work here, we need to see the Executive funding it and the responsible Ministers driving it, and we must see cross-departmental work between Justice and Health to address the issue.”
• The Minister of Health, Mike Nesbitt, confirmed that the implementation of RCRP is planned on a phased basis, starting with “concern for welfare calls”.
• He reminded his fellow MLAs that mental health services have suffered historic underinvestment and that the Mental Health Strategy requires £1.2 billion over 10 years for transformation – unfortunately, only a fraction has been invested so far, drawn from existing budgets.
• He concluded: “Members of the Health Committee are free not only to advise me on how to prioritise the delivery of the strategy but to assist me in understanding how to do it without disadvantaging other areas of health and social care… I want to be clear: mental health will remain a priority, not because a motion instructs it but because it is the right thing to do.”
• Later, the following resolution was adopted:

That this Assembly expresses grave concern that failings in the health and social care (HSC) system are forcing the PSNI to act as the service of last resort for those facing mental ill health or other forms of health crisis; expresses further severe concern that the PSNI responds to over 100 concern for safety calls per day on average, with only 3% of those incidents linked to crime; agrees that having to make up for gaps in health and social services is having an unaffordable impact on policing resources and capacity; notes that that additional pressure is being put on policing despite the Department of Health receiving more than half of the Executive’s entire 2025-26 resource Budget and the PSNI being in urgent need of additional funding, with staff and officer numbers at a critically low level; calls on the Minister of Health to prioritise delivery of the mental health strategy 2021-2031, including expediting the delivery of a new regional mental health crisis service, as well as Health and Well-being 2026: Delivering Together; and further calls on the Minister of Justice to work alongside the Minister of Health to implement the Right Care, Right Person model in order to address the unsustainable burden that the Department of Health is placing on police services.

On 4th December, the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Committee for Health received a briefing from the Department of Health on December monitoring and the Budget three-year plan.

• David Keenan, the Department’s Interim Financial Director, stated that that the department began the current financial year with a £600m funding gap, including £200m for health and social care pay. “The plan was to deliver £300m on savings internally and seek help from the Executive to cover the remaining £300m.”
• He confirmed that the £100m committed to the pay awards has not yet been confirmed by the Northern Ireland Executive and remains subject to the December monitoring round. Even if approved, this is “up to £100m”, leaving a significant funding gap, in spite of identified savings. Further support will still be required.
• He went on to say that “any overspend in the 25/26 financial year may be deducted from the 26/27 budget, this will make the next financial year at least as equally as challenging as the current one.”
• Phillip McGuigan MLA asked what improvements could be expected under a multi-year Budget. The officials confirmed that the Department’s submission was made in September 2025, including nine high-priority bids aligned with the Health and Social Care Reset Plan. These focus on primary care reform, social care reform and mental health reform.

On Thursday 4th December, the Department of Health published their quarterly Northern Ireland Outpatient, Inpatient and Day Case, and Diagnostic Waiting Times Statistics, relating to the position on 30 September 2025.

Key Figures: Waiting Times for a First Outpatient Appointment

• 542,451 patients were waiting for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment at hospitals in Northern Ireland on 30 September 2025.
• 86.4% (468,485) of patients were waiting more than nine weeks for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment on 30 September 2025.
• 55.6% (301,753) of patients were waiting more than 52 weeks for a first consultant-led outpatient appointment on 30 September 2025.

Click here to view the full publication. 

Week commencing 8th December 2025

Ministerial oral questions: Minister for Communities – 8th December

All-Party Group on Autism – 9th December

Committee for Finance: Ministerial Briefing – 10th December

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