The national ambition is for all mental health trusts to ensure 80% of patients discharged from adult acute mental health inpatient settings are followed up within 72 hours, and is intended to bring focus not just to the timeliness of follow-up, but also to the quality of pre and post-discharge care and safety planning and support. NHS England routinely monitors performance against this target at an integrated care board (ICB) level, which is subject to the same quality and performance oversight as other national targets.

This expectation is reinforced through national statutory guidance on Discharge from mental health inpatient settings, and data on performance is also published on a monthly basis, with 75% of discharges in October 2025 meeting the ambition. Over 40% of ICBs met or exceeded the target in October 2025. Further information on the Discharge from mental health inpatient settings guidance and the monthly data is available respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/discharge-from-mental-health-inpatient-settings/discharge-from-mental-health-inpatient-settings

https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiOTdjYzFiYTUtZmEwMi00ZTA2LTkxOGUtMDZmMmZjMThiZGNhIiwidCI6IjM3YzM1NGIyLTg1YjAtNDdmNS1iMjIyLTA3YjQ4ZDc3NGVlMyJ9

The timeliness of follow-up support is linked to the capacity of community teams and pathways between inpatient and community services which vary across the country. Mental health services are facing significant pressures with more people being seen than ever before. Ongoing improvements in community mental healthcare and work to localise and realign inpatient mental health care within ICBs is expected to improve the national picture.

While the central metric of the new standard focuses on the timeliness of follow up, the overarching expectation is that this will incentivise focus on overall quality of discharge planning and support. This is expected to have a direct impact on patient experience as well as outcomes. The Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 includes the expectation that plans should be set out for the consistent and systematic use of the mental health Urgent and Emergency Care Action Cards in all relevant settings, namely acute settings, and delivery of the 10 high-impact actions for mental health discharges to support flow through all mental health, including child and adolescent mental health, and learning disability and autism pathways. Further information on the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 and mental health discharges is available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/urgent-and-emergency-care-plan-2025-26/

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/discharge-challenge-for-mental-health-and-community-services-providers/

The Department does not hold data on the annual cost of discharge delays. However, from September 2025, NHS England has started to publish data on the cost of discharge. This information is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/discharge-delays/acute-discharge-situation-report/

The following table shows the total cost of delays to bed days for September and October of 2025:

This estimates that the unit cost of a bed day is £562, which is derived from the £527 2023/25 bed day cost, and which has been uplifted by 6.65% to estimate bed day costs for 2025/26 using the NHS Cumulative Uplift Factor to account for inflation, resulting in a unit cost of £562.

This analysis does not include wider costs, such as the opportunity cost of care foregone by not being able to admit other patients, or the cost to the patient themselves of being in an inappropriate setting. The estimates do not consider the alternative cost of providing health and care support to patients outside of the acute hospital setting if these patients were not delayed in hospital.

Every acute hospital has access to a multi-disciplinary care transfer hub, where National Health Service and social care professionals manage discharges and arrange appropriate support packages for patients, so they receive the services they need upon their discharge. As set out in the statutory guidance on hospital discharge and community support, these teams should ensure that any safeguarding concerns have been considered alongside other support needs.