A strong community mental health system depends on organisations that can plan, retain skilled staff, invest in quality, and remain rooted in the communities that trust them. Yet many mental health charities are working with short-term contracts, rising costs, workforce pressures, and commissioning models that do not cover the real cost of delivering support.

Our role is to make those pressures visible nationally and work with members on practical changes. We bring providers together to identify common problems, develop shared positions, test solutions, and speak with a stronger voice.

Commissioning decisions shape whether good services can survive and adapt. We make the case for full and fair costs, longer-term funding, proportionate procurement, transparent decisions, and commissioning that values outcomes, prevention, relationships, and community knowledge rather than price alone.

Our member-developed Charity Commissioning Charter sets out practical commitments for a healthier relationship between statutory bodies and mental health charities. We use it in national discussions about the Mental Health Strategy, neighbourhood health, and future investment.

People delivering community mental health support need fair pay, development, and recognition. Through wider social care reform and Fair Pay Agreement discussions, we are making sure working-age mental health social care, smaller charities, specialist provision, and non-traditional support are visible alongside larger and more conventional parts of adult social care.

Better pay must be matched by funding that reaches providers. Otherwise a reform designed to strengthen the workforce can increase pressure on services already operating on tight margins.

Regulation is essential, but it has to understand the services it regulates. When members identify inconsistent interpretation or unintended consequences, we gather evidence across organisations and commissioner partners and take that picture to the regulator. Our current work on CQC registration and dormancy is one example.

Smaller, specialist, culturally responsive, and neighbourhood organisations often hold vital knowledge about unmet need and unequal access, but are least likely to have dedicated policy teams. Members' Meetings, networks, policy groups, and targeted discussions give them practical routes into national conversations without expecting every member to engage with everything.