London is the quickest region to answer NHS 111 mental health calls as callers in crisis wait nearly four minutes on average across England, data reveals.
The emergency mental health call service has not met its measurable key performance indicators (KPI) since it launched in April 2024, with 97% of organisations failing to meet national answer time targets in September 2025, NHS Digital reports.
Accessed by dialling 111 and pressing 2, the service aims to provide 24-hour emergency support by using an automated phone system that directs users to a team of skilled mental health professionals.
The three indicators set to measure the efficiency of the service focus on the target number of abandoned calls, the time within which 95% of calls are answered, and the average speed to answer calls.
In September 2025, the average time taken to answer a call across England was 230 seconds, 210 seconds above the 20-second target, and only a one-second improvement on April’s 2024 figures.
Alexa Knight, Director at Mental Health Foundation, said: “We know that people working on the NHS frontlines care deeply about supporting those in crisis, and they too will be distressed by the fact that not everyone is getting timely access to compassionate and effective support.
“It is vital that our health services have adequate investment to ensure they can be run in a way that enables people to receive the right support at the right time.”
The most recent figures rank London as having the shortest call answer time in the country, reducing waits from 111 seconds in April 2024 to 59 seconds in September 2025.
The South East has the longest wait time, with a recent average of nearly nine minutes per call.
Meanwhile, average call waiting times in the North West have improved by a third, decreasing from nine and a half minutes to just over six minutes in September 2025.
In the East of England, the average time to answer a 111 crisis call is currently just under four minutes.
Knight believes that ensuring mental health support is available early on, in “schools, workplaces, and primary care settings”, is vital to help individuals manage their mental health before the need for health services arises.
She said: “We cannot treat our way out of the mental health crisis.
“We also need sustained investment in prevention to reduce the number of people reaching crisis point in the first place and to alleviate the pressure on our over-stretched services.
“Prevention must be a core part of any long-term strategy to improve mental health outcomes.”
Of the 69 providers that submitted data to NHS Digital, only two trusts have hit the answer time target in 2025 so far.
One of these was West London NHS Trust, which reduced the average time its helpline takes to answer a call from 35 seconds in 2024 to five seconds in 2025.
London call waiting times have increased the most for Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, rising from 42 seconds in 2024 to more than two minutes this year.
Clare Rennett, Head of Fundraising and Marketing at Mind Hertfordshire Network, said: “We know that when people make contact, they are often doing so at a point of vulnerability, and ensuring they feel heard and supported from the outset can make a meaningful difference.
“Timely responses are important, as delays can add to the stress people may already be experiencing when they seek help.”
Tracey Bell, Director of Quality and Operations at Mental Health Matters, said: “It’s important to recognise that call waiting times may not tell the full story.
“What people need is someone to listen, to give them time and space to talk through what they’re experiencing.
“Even when people do get through, they’re often signposted to contact other services, where they may face yet another wait.”
Bell stated that services available vary “dramatically” across the country, with some people being directed to “Safe Havens” like Mental Health Matters, while others have nowhere to go.
She said: “Some people are told to contact charity helplines that receive no funding for those calls or have had their funding reduced since 111 – option 2 was introduced.”
In Mind’s 2025 Big Mental Health Report, the charity recorded that one in five adults in England are currently living with a common mental health problem, and rates are climbing.
Mind reported that one in three adults said their mental health was worse now than before the pandemic, and lists variables such as cuts to public services as current drivers of this decline.
From the data, it’s clear that the demand for NHS’ crisis call service is rising, yet not being met.
At least 40,000 calls went unanswered in both April 2024 and September 2025, with just over a quarter of these figures due to call abandonment, which the NHS states is common in mental health crisis calls.
For Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, wait times per call can be up to 26 minutes on average, a 20% improvement on the trust’s 33-minute wait time recorded in 2024.
The trust is in the top ten organisations with the most received calls in both years, receiving 7241 calls in April 2024 alone.
Bell also suggested that investment in prevention services will stop people from reaching a “crisis point” where more “intensive support” is needed.
She explained that charities, like Mental Health Matters, can provide immediate support.
She said: “For those who do experience a crisis, the government needs to consider all the ways crisis support can be delivered and invest in models that relieve pressure on the NHS.
“We believe the government should look at how the expertise of the sector can support 111 to meet their targets and give people access to support quicker.”
SWLondoner has reached out to Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust for comment.
Featured image by Marília Castelli on Unsplash.
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