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NHS mental health services should partner with voluntary sector to transform care, report argues

The report, from the Centre for Mental Health found that when NHS bodies formed alliances with local voluntary sector organisations, they were able to reach more people

23rd July 2024 about a 4 minute read
“Voluntary and community sector organisations are more widely trusted by people with mental health difficulties who have had bad experiences with a range of statutory services. But they are hampered by insecure contracts, short-term funding and bureaucratic processes that stop them fulfilling their potential.” Andy Bell, CEO, Centre for Mental Health.

The NHS needs to build partnerships with the voluntary sector in order to improve mental health care, according to a new report from the Centre for Mental Health.

The report, entitled  More than a sum of our parts, examined a series of collaborations, or “alliances”, established by the charity Rethink Mental Illness with funding from the Charities Aid Foundation.

The collaborations evaluated in the report were in four areas in England: Coventry and Warwickshire; North East Lincolnshire; Sheffield; and Tower Hamlets. It found that these services allowed their mental health offering to be tailored by people who had lived experience of mental health issues, thus making services both more effective and more accessible.

The report is based on a survey of 70 respondents – partners, key stakeholders and experts by experience – and found that “that most organisations involved in the alliances had supported up to 1,000 people in the last 12 months, with most feeling that joining the mental health alliances had increased their reach.”

Trust is paramount

By working with the voluntary sector, professionals are better able to reach individuals who are sometimes overlooked, including those from Black and ethnic minority or gay and lesbian backgrounds.

Although initiating an alliance could be challenging, the report said, “clear assurances about the alliance’s purpose helped keep focus and commitment.” It added that “trust was paramount for the success of the alliances and was the bedrock for meaningful collaboration.” In Coventry and Warwickshire and Sheffield, for example, the alliances “encountered challenges from the existing system and prevailing service cultures.” In response, they “focused on overcoming mistrust, promoted collaboration rather than competition, and showed how working together could reduce fragmentation within the sector and across different organisations.”

The lack of certainty about long-term funding is preventing the sector from fully realising its potential, however, the report said.

“Voluntary and community sector organisations are more widely trusted by people with mental health difficulties who have had bad experiences with a range of statutory services,” said Andy Bell, CEO at the Centre for Mental Health.

“But they are hampered by insecure contracts, short-term funding and bureaucratic processes that stop them fulfilling their potential.”

DHSC should establish unified vision for mental health

The report offers six recommendations for regional and national organisations in the NHS:

  • Integrated care boards (ICBs) should resource, develop, support and work with mental health alliances.
  • The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) should incorporate the core principles of mental health partnerships into the broader strategy for health and social care to establish a unified and clear vision for mental health.
  • NHS England should secure a binding commitment from ICBs to provide ongoing and sustainable resources for mental health alliances as part of a long-term funding plan for mental health initiatives. This could be achieved in future annual planning guidance and strategies following the Long Term Plan.
  • NHS England should encourage the development of networks of mental health alliances across all integrated care systems (ICSs), by issuing improved guidance around commissioning, working proactively with systems to reduce barriers to collaborative working, and introducing light-touch access to community mental health transformation funding for grassroots organisations.
  • NHS England should hold systems to account for implementing in full its existing statutory guidance for “working in partnership with people and communities”.
  • The DHSC should establish a national evaluation and learning framework that comprehensively and independently assesses the impact of mental health alliances and suggests areas for improvement, while maintaining transparency and accountability at every stage, and use its findings to inform future policy making and practice.

“Collaboration is essential for the future of mental health care,” said Mark Winstanley, CEO of Rethink Mental Illness CEO. “Working in partnership, we can ensure that more people receive effective care when they need it.”

He added: “Services must be designed with input from those with lived experience to ensure they best meet their needs, striving for greater equity so no one is left behind. This evaluation also highlights the valuable role of the voluntary sector, and we hope the pioneering efforts in the trailblazing regions can be expanded nationwide.”

FCC Insight

The steep increase in demand on mental health services in the last five years has led to long NHS waiting lists. It’s not possible to address this simply by recruiting more mental health practitioners – training and recruitment take time. The better solution is to improve services at a community level by making greater use of voluntary organisations, who often provide valuable services, such as peer support. The alliances analysed by the Centre for Mental Health in its report show that collaboration with the voluntary sector can lead to more effective support as well as reach more people. We support the report’s recommendation to both local and national NHS bodies to foster greater collaboration with voluntary and community organisations.