More than 2.8m people were in contact with secondary mental health services in England in 2019-20, according to new figures published by NHS Digital.

Data published in the Mental Health Bulletin: 2019-20 Annual Report show that the number of people people reported to be in contact with1 secondary mental health services in England is reported to have increased2has increased2 from 2,726,700 in 2018-19 to 2,878,600 in 2019-20.

The report shows that there were 548,500 children and young people who had made first contact3 with secondary mental health services in 2019/20.

Children from the most deprived areasareas4 (73,500) were more than twice as likely to be in contact with mental health secondary care support than those from the least deprived areas (34,200).

It is also revealed in the publication that 30,600 people were in contact with secondary mental health services for perinatal mental health problems5. Those Those living in the most deprived areas (4,400) were more than twice as likely to be in contact with mental health services than those living in the least deprived areas (1,800).

Altogether 12,000 people in England were subject to at least one restrictive intervention in 2019/20.

The proportion of the overall population who were in a mental health setting and underwent at least one restrictive intervention varied by ethnicity.

The figures reveal that 70.5 black or black British people per 100,000 of the population were in a mental health setting and underwent at least one restrictive intervention6 compared to 18.7 white people per 100,000 of the population.

The total number of white people who were subject to restrictive intervention stood at 8,400 compared to 1,300 black or black British people.

Other data in the report includes:

Number of adult mental health care clusters assigned by end of year
Number of in-year bed days
Admissions, discharges and average daily occupied beds
Care contacts by attendance and service
Number of referrals on Early Intervention for Psychosis (EIP) pathway
Number of discharges from adult acute secondary mental health services beds followed up within 72 hours
Number of referrals and contacts with memory services teams for people with dementia
The data is broken down to local level by commissioning region, Sustainable and Transformation Plan (STP) footprint, clinical commissioning group (CCG) and local authority.