I’m very pleased to participate in this important debate today. I want to concentrate on how public services can assist in terms of mental health care, but also how public services can have a detrimental impact in this area. If I could start with the health service. Unfortunately, we’re staging this debate whilst there is another inquiry into mental health care in the Betsi Cadwaladr area. It’s important to recall why the board was placed into special measures despite the fantastic work of most front-line staff. The Tawel Fan scandal was quite appalling, and it demonstrated the clear need to improve the way in which mental health patients are treated within the NHS.

The lack of services in north Wales and the shortage of beds is certainly a problem. This has led to a situation, between April and July of this year, over a period of just four months, where 91 patients were sent from the Betsi area to England to receive treatment. That’s 91 patients at a cost of around £1 million; never mind, of course, the impact on those individuals themselves. Last week, too, we heard the story of one patient who had been treated in the Betsi area who then had to go to Essex for treatment because of a shortage of bed, because the Hergest unit in Bangor was full. Of course, that unit has been full every month, with the exception of one, since October of last year.

Promoting good mental health is a responsibility on all of our public services. Each service can make a contribution in this area. For example, planning and environmental departments need to promote access to open spaces and active travel, as we discussed earlier. There is clear evidence that access to greenfield sites, even within our cities, has a positive impact on mental health. There was a study carried out by the school of medicine in Exeter that proved this, and a study in the Netherlands, which questioned over 300,000 people, demonstrates a number of things—for example, that there was a positive relationship between reduced mental health problems and the availability of green spaces. There was a strong link in terms of anxiety, and that was stronger in terms of children and those of a lower socioeconomic status.

Public services also have a responsibility to care for their own workforce. Stress is more of a problem in public sector areas such as health and social care, education, public administration and defence. Members of the emergency services face an even greater risk and are less likely to seek assistance. But of all the public services that need to raise their game, there is one service that stands out and deserves harsh criticism, namely the Department for Work and Pensions and job centres. There is room to believe that the DWP is actually exacerbating mental health problems. Very thorough research has been carried out by Mind, which actually highlights these problems. Three times as many benefit sanctions have been introduced for those people who do have mental health problems than those who were supported to go into work, and participating in the Work Programme has actually made these problems worse. Mind’s findings are quite appalling. For example, 83 per cent stated that their self-respect had been affected, and 76 per cent said that they felt less ready for work, having been to one of these schemes that were supposed to encourage them back to the workplace. Eighty-six per cent stated that they needed more assistance, and one in four actually had to attend hospital while attending these programmes. That is entirely unacceptable. Welfare reform has had a disproportionate effect on those people with mental health issues. The assessments failed to take into account the needs of those with mental health problems in the assessment itself, and also in terms of the stress that people with mental health problems face in undertaking that income assessment test.

Unfortunately, the stress is around failing the ability-to-work assessment, and then the long-winded appeals process, has led to a number of suicides, which is tragic. The culture within DWP, under a number of UK Governments, has made people ill, and this Assembly should send a clear message to state that such a situation is disgraceful and unacceptable. We must emphasise that we must stop harming people before we can actually help them.