A HEALTH commissioner has promised to increase its funding for mental health services following a national investigation.

Following the Labour Party's revelation that half of the country's clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will reduce their mental health budgets for 2017/18, Oxfordshire CCG says it is committed to spending more.

In 2016/17 the CCG committed 8.36 per cent of its total budget to mental health services, totalling £69m.

For the next financial year it will be spending £71m on the sector, which is 8.32 per cent of its total budget.

Head of mental health and joint commissioning at the CCG, Ian Bottomley, said it was committed to delivering national standards for mental health.

He said: "Planned investment in mental health, excluding learning disability and dementia, will increase by 2.5 per cent in 2017/18 and 2.7 per cent in 2018/19 compared with a two per cent growth in each year for the overall CCG budget.

"We are committed to delivering the national standards set out in our five year forward view for mental health.

"Oxfordshire is delivering the current key national targets in relation to access, waiting times and recovery for psychological therapies, and similar targets in terms of early intervention in psychosis.

"We have commissioned an outcomes based contract for people with severe mental illness that prioritises physical wellbeing, help into work, crisis response and the needs of carers in 2015, an integrated psychological and wellbeing services for people with mild to moderate anxiety and depression in 2016 and a new service for children and young people affected by mental illness this year."

In addition, the county has developed a number of other services to help residents suffering from mental health problems, including triage partnerships with the police and ambulance service.

MP for Oxford East, Anneliese Dodds, said that as well as making more of a concerted effort to commit funding to mental health services, we also needed to recognise and celebrate those currently in the county.

She said: "We need to remember that the mental health services in Oxfordshire are very good.

"Like with most things it is a case of needing more funding and staff so these services can reach even more people.

"There has been a lot of talk in Parliament but we just need to start seeing this funding and support trickle down into the region."