Mental Health North East 2

£45,680 (2011/2012) for an action plan ‘Whose Marketplace is it anyway?’

The project supports voluntary and community sector providers of mental health and wellbeing services in the North East, and helps ensure that they survive and thrive in the competitive ‘provider market’ that is being driven by personal budgets and direct payments in health and social care.

The main thrust of this work takes place in two specific areas with a view to learning being shared across the region. During a preparatory phase, undertaken between January and April 2011, a campaign plan was drawn up for implementation in the financial year 2011/2012.

The project continues MHNE’s work on personalization and mental health and will respond to challenges emerging from policy changes in health and social services. It will undertake in-depth work with mental health VCS organizations, campaign on their behalf and on behalf of their beneficiaries and share learning regionally and nationally.

Following the initial phase of the project, MHNE has continued consultations with mental health VCS providers, MHNE’s partners and service users and carers in Derwentside and Newcastle, the two areas on which it was decided to focus. The project aims to support the mental health VCS in these localities to address issues collaboratively, to produce plans of action and to develop a ‘campaigning culture’.

There is clear evidence that there are higher levels of mental health needs in the North East than elsewhere in England. There has been less investment in statutory mental health services, and mental health needs are more likely to be responded to with medication than in other parts of the country. Initiatives such as personal budgets are being introduced more slowly and funding, staffing and services are reducing while demand for support increases. The knock-on effects of the recession and the Government’s policies of financial restraint are particularly significant for people with mental health needs and for the organizations and groups which support them.

The project’s work in Derwentside is highlighting the consequences for an area where provision is less developed and capacity more limited. In Newcastle there has been a higher level of resources but these are also being reduced; the project is working through existing forums and networks to try to ensure that mental health is given strategic priority under the new arrangements for commissioning and funding.

In developing a campaigning strategy the project has adopted an holistic approach to the effects of current policies and has produced a comprehensive summary of key policies and their impact. Its interventions, which have to be selective, opportunistic and targeted, have included contributions to national policy consultations, case studies, briefings for MPs and members of the House of Lords, and articles for publication in the press. Following correspondence with Government Ministers and a meeting with local MPs, in July 2011 MHNE was invited to construct a question on VCS provision for mental health in the North East, which was put to the Secretary of State at the Health Select Committee.

© The Millfield House Foundation 2010. Registered Charity No. 271180.