On 17 December 2024, the Health and Social Care Committee launched its inquiry into community mental health services for adults with severe mental illness (SMI). As the only national membership body representing the voluntary, community, faith, and social enterprise (VCFSE) mental health sector, the Association of Mental Health Providers submitted written and oral evidence reflecting the experience of our diverse member organisations – from large charities to small, community-embedded providers.

Today’s report confirms much of what our members have long been telling us and what our evidence to the inquiry emphasised: community mental health services remain fragmented, inconsistently funded and poorly integrated with people’s wider social needs. We strongly welcome the Committee’s conclusions and its recognition of the crucial role of the VCFSE sector in delivering better, fairer and more accessible support.

We particularly welcome the Committee’s recommendation that every community should have access to a 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centre. For our membership, this is not a peripheral idea; it is the core infrastructure through which modern community mental health services should be delivered.

Through our role as co-chairs of the national VCFSE Network for the Pilot Programme with NHS England and our members’ involvement in developing neighbourhood mental health models and non-clinical crisis alternatives, we have seen that such centres can:

• Provide a trusted, local anchor for people living with SMI and their families
• Offer relational, holistic and culturally competent support that reflects people’s lived realities
• Reduce pressure on emergency departments and inpatient wards by offering 24/7 alternatives to crisis admissions
• Function as a practical hub for integration, bringing together mental health, housing, social care, employment, peer support and wider community assets in one place

We therefore urge government and NHS England to treat Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres as essential system-wide infrastructure, not “nice-to-have” pilots. Their success will depend on a strong, long-term partnership with VCFSE providers, who already deliver much of the community-based, out-of-hours and crisis-alternative support that these centres will rely on.

The report’s emphasis on integration across services aligns closely with our own vision of neighbourhood health, in which mental health is not siloed or secondary but fully embedded in place-based approaches.

Our members’ experience shows that:

• Mental health is inseparable from housing, income, employment, relationships and safety
• Sustainable recovery depends on social connection and belonging, not just access to clinical treatment
• Culturally specific and community-led services are often the only trusted entry point into support for many communities

We therefore call for mental health to be fully integrated into neighbourhood health models – including Integrated Neighbourhood Teams – with VCFSE mental health service providers recognised as core system partners in each place, rather than peripheral “add-ons”.

We strongly welcome the Committee’s recognition that VCFSE organisations remain undervalued and structurally disadvantaged within current commissioning arrangements. Our evidence highlighted that:

• VCFSE organisations are frequently reliant on short-term grants and contracts, undermining continuity for people with SMI
• Competitive tendering and transactional commissioning discourage collaboration and destabilise local ecosystems of support
• Funding insecurity leads to workforce churn and burnout, particularly in services where relationships and continuity are central

We endorse the Committee’s call for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to support Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in moving to multi-year, sustainable funding relationships with VCFSE providers. This is essential if the VCFSE sector is to play its full role in neighbourhood mental health and 24/7 centre models.

The report rightly highlights the damaging pattern of people with SMI experiencing cycles of crisis and discharge, with support withdrawn once they are considered “stable”. Our members see the consequences of this every day.

VCFSE services often provide the long-term, relational, community-based support that keeps people well between episodes of acute care. Recognising and properly resourcing this role is critical to achieving the Committee’s ambitions on continuity of care, particularly for those with complex needs, multiple disadvantage, or experience of the criminal justice system.

We welcome the Committee’s conclusion that services designed and delivered with and by people with lived experience are more trusted, accessible and effective. This reflects longstanding practice within many of our member organisations, which:

• Employ, train and support people with lived experience at all levels
• Use co-production as a default approach to service design and governance
• Facilitate peer support, mutual aid and user-led initiatives

Future models of neighbourhood mental health and 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres should be co-produced from the outset, with lived experience embedded in their governance, staffing and evaluation.

The Committee’s focus on the wider determinants of mental health is particularly welcome. People with SMI are often dealing with homelessness, insecure housing, poverty, unemployment, trauma, physical ill health and social isolation.

VCFSE organisations are already working across these boundaries – providing supported accommodation, housing-related support, employment and volunteering programmes, social and peer networks, culturally specific services, criminal justice interventions and more. Properly funded, integrated neighbourhood models can build on these strengths rather than duplicating or displacing them.

We agree with the Committee that improving the service user journey must be underpinned by better data, meaningful outcomes and transparent accountability at local and national levels.

The Association’s Mental Health Data Observatory provides the first national data infrastructure focused specifically on VCFSE mental health provision. It captures detail on:

• Community and neighbourhood mental health services
• Crisis alternatives and non-clinical crisis provision
• Supported accommodation and housing-related support
• Culturally specific and community-led services
• Gaps, variations and patterns of investment and disinvestment
• Demographic information detailing population need and demand

No other national dataset offers this level of visibility of the VCFSE mental health landscape – including services that often do not appear in NHS datasets. This positions the Association as an authoritative source of insight for government, NHS England, ICBs and local authorities seeking to implement the Committee’s recommendations and track progress over time.

We stand ready to work with partners to ensure that this data is used to reduce inequities, target investment where it is most needed, and support the development of effective 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres and neighbourhood health models.

Finally, we reiterate that the Association of Mental Health Providers is unique in being wholly dedicated to representing VCFSE mental health services across England and Wales. Our mandate is to champion the VCFSE mental health provider voice alone, and this enables us to advocate with clarity, authenticity and independence for a part of the system that has too often been overlooked despite delivering essential, life-changing support.

This also gives us a clear, independent perspective on:

• The value and vulnerability of VCFSE provision
• The need for sustained equitable investment in community-based and crisis-alternative services
• The central role of VCFSE providers in making neighbourhood mental health – and 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres – a reality.

We look forward to working with Parliament, government, NHS England, ICBs and partners across the sector to ensure that the Committee’s recommendations translate into concrete, lasting improvements in the lives of people with severe mental illness.

Dania Hanif, Chief Executive, Association of Mental Health Providers, says:

“We welcome this report, which clearly reflects the lived reality of VCFSE mental health providers and the communities they support. The recommendation for 24/7 Neighbourhood Mental Health Centres is one of the most significant steps forward in years.

Neighbourhood mental health cannot work without the VCFSE sector at its heart. Our members provide the relational, culturally competent, community-led support that keeps people well and prevents crisis.

As the only national body representing VCFSE mental health service providers, we stand ready to work with government, the NHS and partners across the system to ensure these recommendations lead to meaningful, lasting change for people with poor mental health and severe mental illness.”