Integrated Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Services

2.1 The NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) set out an expectation that Integrated Care Systems (ICS’s) would develop “new integrated models of primary and community mental health care (which) will support adults and older adults with severe mental illness” to improve outcomes. To support ICS’s to develop these new models the NHS published a new Community Mental Health Framework for adults and older adults in 2019. The framework describes the Long Term Plan’s vision for placed based community mental health models and how these can be realised and details how; community services should be modernised to offer whole person, whole population health approaches, aligned with Primary Care Networks (PCNs).2.2 To support implementation of the new framework North East London’s (NCL) ICS submitted an application to NHSE outlining its new community model for mental health services. The new model for community mental health services will deliver integrated multi-disciplinary teams that are placed based within our boroughs and deliver improved outcomes for people with mental ill health.2.3 The Trust will engage in a gradual programme of development, introducing new Neighbourhood Teams over the next 3 years that will be based around Primary Care Networks. These teams will, over time, replace current Access and Community Recovery Teams in order to improve continuity of care so that clinicians can develop longer lasting and deeper relationships with service users, their families, friends and networks. The change we aim to bring about is thus both structural and cultural and all staff joining the new teams will receive training in additional systemic and holistic skills to work in a more person-centred way.2.4 Central to our new teams will be a number of Peer Workers who will be core members of each team. We aim to recruit 7-8 Peer Workers in each team through a collaboration between NELFT and 3rd Sector partners.