The Association of Mental Health Providers welcomes the Government’s call for evidence on the 10 Year Workforce Plan. As the national voice for the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) mental health sector in England and Wales, we represent more than 300 organisations supporting over 8 million people each year. This consultation is a vital opportunity to build a long-term, sustainable workforce strategy that reflects the whole mental health system, not just the NHS.

The shifts identified in the 10 Year Health Plan – from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention – are already embedded in the VCSE sector. Our members run community-based services that ease pressure on hospitals, develop digital and blended models of care, and deliver prevention and early intervention to reduce escalation of need. But the workforce that underpins this work is too often overlooked.

VCSE staff deliver critical services under challenging conditions: recruitment and retention are undermined by short-term, insecure commissioning; workforce stability is compromised by funding cycles; and there remains a lack of parity in pay, recognition, and career progression compared with NHS colleagues. Unless addressed, these challenges will weaken the capacity of the sector and risk losing the reach and expertise that it brings to communities across England and Wales.

The Association has consistently argued that a credible workforce strategy must reflect the contribution of mental health and social care staff in the VCSE sector. Through our Mental Health Data Observatory, we are building the evidence base that makes this visible. One strand of this work, our mental health social care workforce map, highlights the composition and breakdown of the social care workforce delivering mental health support. This provides a clearer picture of where pressures lie and where investment is needed. Without including social care, and specifically the VCSE workforce, in the design and delivery of the 10 Year Workforce Plan, the NHS will not be able to achieve its ambition to shift care into the community, expand prevention, or embed digital approaches.

As our Interim Chief Executive, Dania Hanif, has said:

“Workforce pressures are one of the biggest threats to sustaining and expanding mental health provision. The Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector provides vital capacity, expertise, and culturally competent support across communities, yet too often remains under-recognised and under-resourced. The 10 Year Workforce Plan is an opportunity to change this by embedding the VCSE as an equal partner, resourcing staff fairly, and ensuring our workforce is integrated into the wider mental health system and equipped to meet the challenges of the next decade.”

The Association urges our members, partners, and people with lived experience to add their voices to this consultation, and will be responding on behalf of the sector. By bringing forward insights from across health, social care, and the VCSE, we can design a workforce plan that is both practical and deliverable, and one that truly reflects the diversity and scale of the mental health system.