MENTAL health charities warned their services will be badly affected by a 20 per cent cut in their budgets.

NHS Oxfordshire, the county’s primary care trust, has carried out a review of mental health day services and is planning to reduce the budget from £2.1m to £1.7m.

Organisations such as Oxfordshire Mind and Restore, in Cowley Road, are among the services which will be hit.

All of the voluntary organisations are preparing their bids for money to continue providing their services for after their current contracts run out in September.

But Stuart Reid, head of services at Oxfordshire Mind, said the size of the cut came as a shock.

He said: “We knew there was going to be some reduction but a 20 per cent cut has come as a huge blow.

“Until Thursday we had no idea this was going to happen.

“We had prepared ourselves for the worse, but when it actually happens, it is very shocking.”

The trust presented the findings of the Keeping People Well review to the NHS trust and county council joint panel, the health overview and scrutiny committee, last week.

In it, it said services were underused by people under the age of 30, people over the age of 64 and people from black and ethnic minority groups.

It also reported an overlap in the services each of the voluntary organisations provide, with many mental health organisations based along the Cowley Road.

Fenella Trevillion, head of integrated commissioning for mental health at NHS Oxfordshire, said the cuts did not mean care could not improve.

She said: “This has been a piece of work involving a lot of people, including service users, which has been ongoing for about a year.

“Obviously, we have had a very challenging financial environment in that time.

“The issue is not reducing services, it is about making them more effective.

“I would like to reassure service users that we have been working with, that we have been listening to what they have said and these changes are part of making sure we’re commissioning the best services for them.”

But Benedict Leigh, director of Cowley Road-based Restore said it was ‘no good pretending’ services would stay the same with less money.

Restore offers people with mental illnesses training and employment opportunities.

He said: “Fair enough everyone is stretched at the moment.

“But to be suddenly faced with a 20 per cent cut is a shock.

“It’s no good pretending to be able to deliver better services with less money, because you just won’t”

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk