NCPS Response: Budget 2025 - What It Means for Counselling & Psychotherapy

On Wednesday 26th of November, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, presented the 2025 Budget to Parliament. While there were many things in the Budget that will hopefully make a difference to the mental health of the nation, we were hoping for a stronger focus on preventative mental health support, particularly in schools and primary care. These spaces in particular are the ones where early, relational interventions can genuinely make a lasting difference in people’s lives. Those specific commitments weren't there this time, and they're still one of the biggest gaps in national mental health planning.

Even so, the Budget does include several decisions that will shape the environment in which our profession operates, and that will influence how easily people can access counselling & psychotherapy when they need it. Some of these developments are encouraging, while others raise questions about how things will play out in practice. As always, the Society will be keeping a close eye on how these changes evolve, and what they mean for both practitioners and the public.

One area we'll be watching is the impact of wider fiscal policies on the voluntary and community sector. Changes to business rates, investment funding, and other tax-related measures may affect the stability of third sector organisations that provide counselling & psychotherapy, many of whom already work with incredibly tight margins. This is something we know is already impacting on a lot of our organisational members, and changes - even those that, on the surface, are positive - can have unforeseen consequences and ultimately a destabilising effect on charities, not-for-profits, and CICs. Unpredictable funding, sadly, leads to consequences that are felt by local communities long before they appear in national statistics. Over the coming months we’ll be working closely with our organisational members to understand how these shifts are affecting their ability to deliver services, and where additional support or advocacy may be needed.

The new Local Growth Fund in England also has potential, although much really depends on how each Mayoral Strategic Authority chooses to use it. The Budget report mentions skills development and prevention, both of which are deeply connected to mental health. Many people need emotional support before they can engage fully in work, training, or education, and counselling can play a key role in helping them get there. We would like to see local leaders recognise this, and use some of their new funding to support counselling & psychotherapy within their communities. The existing workforce is already trained, experienced, and ready to provide this support if local systems choose to make use of it.

One of the more positive moments in the Budget was the decision to lift the two-child benefit cap. This change is expected to lift around 4.5 million children out of poverty, and that will have a profound effect on the emotional wellbeing of families across the UK. Financial hardship sits heavily on children and the adults who care for them, and poverty often creates the conditions in which emotional distress exacerbates, and soon becomes harder to address. Giving families a little more security will allow more children to grow up with the stability they need to thrive, which is one of the most meaningful forms of early intervention we can hope for. We also welcome the increase in taxes on online gambling, as gambling harms are increasingly recognised as a major public health issue with strong links to anxiety, distress, and, heartbreakingly, suicide. Any step that reduces this harm is absolutely a step worth taking.

Another notable announcement is the creation of 250 new neighbourhood health centres. In principle, these centres could offer more integrated support for communities, and potentially create new opportunities for counsellors & psychotherapists to work alongside GPs, nurses, and other practitioners. At this stage, though, we don’t yet know what their mental health offer will look like, or whether talking therapies will be embedded within their core services. The Government continues to talk about a shift towards preventative care, although the references remain largely centred on physical health. We hope that mental health will be included in that shift as the details become clearer, and we’ll be advocating for relational, human-centred support (i.e. counselling & psychotherapy) to sit firmly within these new centres.

Taken together, the Budget doesn’t deliver the dedicated investment that we had hoped for. But there are areas of potential, particularly at the local level, and some wider social policies that may reduce the pressures and inequalities that push people towards crisis. 

Over the coming months we’ll continue to listen to members, speak with decision-makers, and make the case that a truly preventative mental health strategy must include early, relational support from trained counsellors & psychotherapists.