Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Acknowledged
Community Mental Health Services fragmentation persists, requiring sustained investment for integrated support models.
Conclusion
Community Mental Health Services (CMHS) are integral to supporting people with severe mental illness across health, social care, and with their wider social needs. Evidence to this inquiry shows that integrated models of support within multi-disciplinary teams—such as co-located teams and Individual Placement and Support—can improve outcomes and reduce system pressures. However, fragmentation across services persists. Without sustained investment and joined-up delivery, CMHS will not enable the ambitions of the Government’s ‘Health’ and ‘Growth’ missions. (Conclusion, Paragraph 107)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government partially accepts the recommendation, acknowledging the value of alliance models and promoting the inclusion of VCFSE organisations in integrated care systems to strengthen collaboration and co-production. It does not, however, commit to specific actions regarding sustained investment or directly addressing the broader fragmentation of Community Mental Health Services.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government · verbatim extract
Acknowledged
The government does not accept this recommendation. Between 2019 and 2021, 12 ‘early implementor’ sites were selected to pilot putting the community mental health framework into practice as well as to develop and share learning on implementation. Each site received funding to evaluate their transformation so that learning could be shared with all systems. NHS England developed and shared an evaluation report based upon this learning to coincide with all systems receiving transformation funding from April 2021. Since then, NHS England has continued to work closely with all systems to identify and share learning, as well as developing a range of resources designed to support the implementation of the vision set out in the community mental health framework. Every local system will have taken the vision of the framework and applied it to their unique circumstances, taking into consideration varied local contexts and the complexity of the transformation described which involves integration with primary care, VCSFE organisations and local authorities. We continue to monitor the performance of community mental health services through the national mental health services dataset. This has shown a substantial increase in rates of access to community mental health services as systems implement the vision set out in the framework. Alongside rates of access, NHS England continues to work with systems to improve the quality of patient reported outcome reporting in services. Ultimately improvements in patient outcomes will be the best measure of the impact of new models of care. As part of developing the MSF on SMI, we will be assessing the evidence and engaging with stakeholders to understand what lessons can be learnt from implementation of the community mental health framework. This will include which strategies and interventions have been most effective as well as the barriers to delivering good practice care.
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