Our Strategy for 2023-28

Working together to build Communities that Care

The Communities that Care model is the cornerstone of our strategy. It means working in open and transparent partnership with a range of people and organisations, so that everyone severely affected by mental illness has a good quality of life and feels part of a community that cares.

A full PDF version of the strategy is available for download.

Experience tells us that people living with severe mental illness often face additional challenges, such as financial insecurity or poor physical health, that make managing their symptoms – or indeed recovery – difficult or impossible. The Communities that Care model is about working with other people and agencies, in a joined-up way, so that people living with severe mental illness also receive coordinated support in the areas listed below, as needed:

• access to health and social care
• housing
• employment, education, training, and volunteering
• physical health
• social connectedness
• money.

Our three objectives

Objective 1: sustain and grow our policy and influencing and campaigning activity aligned with Communities that Care, creating system-level change for people severely affected by mental illness.

Objective 2: sustain and improve our existing services whilst expanding our offer aligned with Communities that Care, so that we meet the needs of more people severely affected by mental illness.

Objective 3: increase the number of areas in which we play a leading role in supporting community mental health transformation which reflects Communities that Care, meaning that more people severely affected by mental illness get the care and support they deserve.

Our approach

There are five key principles that underpin everything we do:

1. Co-production and involvement – people with experience of severe mental illness are at the heart of everything we do, actively shaping our services, campaigns, and strategy.
2. Equity and inclusion – we are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and becoming a truly anti-racist organisation.
3. Collaboration and partnership – we will build and support effective partnerships that allow us to deliver more for people living with severe mental illness.
4. Generous Leadership – we will share our knowledge and experience with partner organisations and recognise and support them in their own areas of expertise, so we can reach more people.
5. Impact – we will measure our success by what we achieve for people severely affected by mental illness and will adapt our approach as needed.