Merton Council was this week accused of being "behind the curve" in its provision of mental health services after it was a month late for signing up to an emergency support action plan.

The Crisis Care Concordat is a 2014 agreement between police, mental health trusts and paramedics which aims to drive out the variation in standards of mental health care provision across the country.

As part of the initiative, every borough in the country was asked to submit a mental health crisis care action plan to Crisis Care Concordat by the start of April.

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But Merton only submitted its action plan this week, after it was criticised on Twitter for being one of only two boroughs in the country which hadn't signed up.

Anthony Fairclough, a Wimbledon legal expert, who has fundraised for mental health charity Mind, said: " "This is the action plan for how various agencies can better work together to help people who are having a mental health crisis.

"I don't understand why Merton was one of the last London boroughs to have this in place.

"I'm very keen that Merton maintains a strong focus on helping people with mental health problems. We don't want to be 'behind the curve' in the support it's able to provide."

It follows a decision by the council to cut its £1.6m mental health care package budget by £76,000 a year from 2016 - representing a 5 per cent reduction in support for some mental health patients in the borough.

The council declined to comment on why it was late in submitting its action plan.

Councillor Caroline Cooper-Marbiah, cabinet member for adult social care and health, said: "We are committed to supporting mental health services in Merton and fully appreciate how immensely important they are to residents who rely on them.

"Mental health is one of the priorities in our health and well-being strategy. Along with the Merton CCG, we have signed up to the national Concordat and continue to work with Merton CCG on developing an action plan which complements the national declaration."

Mental health services in Merton are provided jointly by the council's adult social care department and Merton's NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

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Led by a Wimbledon GP with other health professionals, the CCG is responsible for ensuring mental health services are provided in the borough out of its annual budget of about £200m. 

Last year it emerged that although 31 per cent of people in Merton are estimated to have a mental health disorder, Merton CCG spent just 9.74 per cent of its budget on services to treat psychological conditions.

At the start of this year, it announced an additional £255,000 investment in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies for the period January to March.

A spokesman said: "Merton CCG is committed to ensuring high quality, good value for money services for people experiencing mental health problems."

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