On 17 December, the House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee launched an inquiry into community mental health services. This marked a crucial opportunity to highlight the crucial role that voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations play in delivering compassionate, person-centred mental health care and support services, particularly for people with complex or long-term needs.

Championing the VCSE Sector

On behalf of our membership of over 300 organisations, we submitted written and oral evidence to the inquiry, shining a spotlight on the impact, challenges, and opportunities facing the VCSE mental health provider sector. Our written submission emphasised key collaborative efforts, including the Mental Health Data Observatory and our joint work with Rethink Mental Illness to support the implementation of the Community Mental Health Framework.

We stressed the need for long-term, sustainable funding models that reflect the true cost and value of VCSE-delivered care. As noted in our submission, without this, the system risks continued fragmentation and underutilising a sector that is already embedded in communities and trusted by those it serves.

Our engagement with the inquiry continued with an invitation to give oral evidence before the Committee on 23 April — a session that further amplified the voice and experience of our members and our sector’s deep understanding of the systemic issues. Watch the session here.

Lived Experience at the Centre

Lived experience has rightly been at the heart of the inquiry. In powerful lived experience focused sessions, people with experience of accessing community mental health services described both positive experiences with VCSE services and serious systemic gaps.

Organisations such as The Listening Place and Black Minds Matter UK were commended for their approachability, trustworthiness, and culturally appropriate support. Yet witnesses also spoke of inconsistent aftercare, limited medication reviews, and the need for genuinely co-produced data to influence service improvement. As one expert by experience put it: “I’ve never once been asked how I felt [my support] went.”

This reinforces the Association’s call for outcomes and performance metrics that reflect the reality of people’s lives and the value of community-based, preventative, and peer-led approaches, especially those delivered by VCSE providers of mental health services.

Highlighting Systemic Gaps in the Current Model

During the oral evidence session on 23 April, The Association strongly challenged the idea that the Community Mental Health Framework has been fully implemented. Instead, we made clear that what exists is a “partial roll-out”, with VCSE organisations often left out of key planning decisions. Our evidence highlighted that the level of transformation aspired to in the Framework is not being realised across the country, with considerable variation in delivery.

We called for greater involvement of VCSE organisations in Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), not just as service providers but as strategic partners with a deep understanding of community need. Without meaningful engagement and adequate funding, VCSE providers are being asked to fill gaps in statutory provision without the resources to do so safely or sustainably.

Voices from the Frontline: Turning Point and Trauma-Informed Support

Also giving evidence in this session was Turning Point, one of our member organisations. Turning Point emphasised the importance of trauma-informed approaches and the need to tailor services to people’s unique experiences. They drew attention to the limitations of models that rely solely on clinical interventions, arguing for “wraparound” support that includes housing, employment, and social connection.

Turning Point also highlighted the potential of VCSE-led peer support models, which are often undervalued in commissioning frameworks, noting that people often benefit from engaging with services rooted in their community and that have lived experience embedded in their design and delivery.

Calling for Joined-Up, Specialised and Inclusive Support

The Committee also heard compelling calls for care and support pathways that reflect the diversity and complexity of mental health needs. As noted in the earlier sessions, people with bipolar disorder, for example, often face long waits and limited specialist care – an issue our Association has repeatedly raised.

As former Care Minister Sir Norman Lamb rightly put it: “This artificial separation of physical and mental health has been quite damaging.”

Our members deliver integrated, whole-person support every day – yet too often, they do so without the recognition or resourcing afforded to statutory services.

Looking Ahead

This inquiry has opened space for a richer understanding of what community mental health care could and should be. VCSE organisations are already pioneering innovative, culturally competent, and trauma-informed models of care – and yet remain under-recognised in national strategy and local commissioning.

We will continue to advocate for the VCSE sector as an essential part of the mental health ecosystem. This means ensuring funding structures reflect our members’ role in prevention, crisis intervention, and recovery. It also means embedding the voices of people with lived experience and the organisations they trust at the heart of policy design.

We thank our members who contributed to this inquiry — through data, testimony, and decades of community-based support. Together, we are reshaping community mental health for the better.