SWINDON health bosses committed to tackling poor mental health have shamed NHS chiefs in other regions.

An investigation by specialist health magazine Pulse revealed that a quarter of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) across England have failed to spend their mental health budget.

The 57 CCGs, which are responsible for paying for the healthcare of those living in their towns and counties, ended their financial year in April sitting on an underspend of £48.6million.

However, Swindon CCG was not among them.

Bosses at the organisation, which commissions healthcare for more than 230,000 people living in Swindon and Shrivenham, spent £160,000 more than expected on mental health care.

They had planned a budget of £25,893,000 – but ended up spending over £26million.

Swindon health chiefs put the overspend down to investing in more staff for mental health services and money for a Swindon patient to receive treatment nearer their family, who had moved away from the town.

A spokeswoman for Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group said: “It is our priority to ensure that Swindon mental health services are given equal priority to physical health with regard to funding, to enable our commissioned providers to deliver safe, responsive, quality services to the population of Swindon and Shrivenham.

“On occasion, unplanned needs arise and we seek to support those. In 2016/17 Swindon CCG supported local mental health services to provide more mental health staff, 24/7 in in-patient care, which incurred increased expenditure.

“Additionally, we supported a person in a local specialist placement to be transferred nearer to their family who had moved some distance away from Swindon, thus ensuring that the patient received the long-term care they needed but was also able to maintain regular contact with their family.”

The CCG say that they want their investment in mental health care to result in “a more rapid, effective response”.

Currently, the organisation funds a “Street Triage” project, which sees mental health professionals provide advice to police officers dealing with people who have known or suspected mental health problems.

A spokeswoman said: “Our continued and increased funding of the Street Triage model has delivered an expanded service from July 2017 and we seek to continue this in partnership with Wiltshire Police.”

Across the country, NHS England over spent on mental health care by £230million last year. A spokesperson told Pulse: “We are proud once again to have met all our commitment to increase mental health funding.”