What We Are Trying To Achieve

Community mental health services play a crucial role in delivering mental health care for adults and older adults with Serious Mental Health Problems (SMHP). The NHS Long term Plan and NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan 2019/20 – 2023/24 sets out that the NHS will develop new and integrated models of primary and community health care.

The aim is to deliver new models of integrated primary and Community Mental Health (CMH) care for adults and older adults with Serious Mental Health Problem (SMHP) over the next 3 years.

The need to dedicate time to laying the groundwork for delivery of these new models has been a key learning from the early implementer phase of the transformation programme.

New integrated community models for adults with Serious Mental Health Problem (SMHP) (including care for people with eating disorders, mental health rehabilitation needs and a ‘personality disorder’ diagnosis) spanning both core community provision and dedicated services will ensure 370,000 adults and older adults per year in England have greater choice and control over their care, and are supported to live well in their communities.

Local Integrated Care Systems have set out clear proposals for the transformation of community health services which include the following key deliverables:

• Invest baseline funding to recruit new staff, expand core Community Mental Health (CMH) Trusts, and increase capacity of CMH services including dedicated pathways for groups with specific needs (including adult eating disorders, mental health rehabilitation, ‘personality disorder’).
• As a minimum, systems should invest at least 85% of the baseline funding.
• Increase delivery of psychological therapy pathways in community services, including dedicated Adult Eating Disorder (AED) pathways and send appropriate staff on nationally funded training courses
• Implement community transformation proposals and develop integrated pathways for people with SMHP across primary care, secondary care, local authorities and the Voluntary and Community and Social Enterprise sector (VCSE)
• Expand services via recruitment and partnerships to meet the access and spend trajectories set out in community transformation plans
• Commission key contracts (e.g., with the VCSE) to support the new models and ensure integrated commissioning with local authorities

Why It’s Important

In line with the NHS Long Term Plan ambitions, by 2023/24:

• All Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) will have received funding to develop and begin delivering new models of integrated primary and community care for adults and older adults with SMHP.
• These new models of care will span both core community provision and dedicated services, where the evidence supports them. The new models will be built around Primary Care Networks.
• A total of 390,000 people with SMHP will receive a physical health check.
• A total of 55,000 people a year will have access to Individual Placement and Support (IPS) services.
• New local funding will also be used to maintain and develop new services for people who have specific or additional needs, including Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP), complex mental health difficulties associated with a diagnosis of ‘personality disorder’, mental health rehabilitation and adult eating disorders.

The Community Mental Health Framework sets out how the NHS Long Term Plan vision can be realised and how community services should transform to offer whole-person, whole population health approaches, aligned with the new Primary Care Networks.