Sheffield Mental Health Collaborative

Rethink Sheffield has recently formed a Mental Health Collaborative. The aim of setting up this group was driven by the need to create opportunities for adults with lived experience to input into decision making across Sheffield’s mental health services.  The collaborative has been in place since May 2023, in the last year a launch event was held to share the aims & vision of the Mental Health Collaborative steering group. The steering group, consisting of experts by experience from Sheffield, has been established since early 2024. 

Aspirations of the service

We want to continue to develop the Mental Health Collaborative steering group and use it as a dedicated resource to promote, facilitate and embed lived experience at all levels of mental health transformation and achieve improvements across Sheffield. We are working on providing networking opportunities across mental health service stakeholders, Voluntary Community Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations and experts by experience to identify and share best practice, develop toolkits and advise commissioners, service providers and other stakeholders. We are aiming to provide information, advice and support to mental health boards, delivery groups and wider audiences in relation to supporting a continuous improvement of mental health services in Sheffield. We are utilising wellbeing and whole population approaches including housing, education, prevention, social inclusion and determinants of wellbeing to recommend and support improvements to local pathways and service delivery.

Aims of the service

To facilitate and support a Steering Group of experts by experience to contribute to mental health transformation and delivery in Sheffield. This group is working on coproducing a shared view of NHS priorities for the city to improve individuals’ experiences and outcomes. We are connecting with other lived experience groups in Sheffield to maximise further opportunities to collaborate and reach different communities.

The process

The process of putting the service together started with identifying and contacting stakeholders, engagement work within lived experience working groups and recruiting a Mental Health Collaborative Coordinator. The next part of the process involved supporting current experts by experience to become part of the Mental Health Collaborative Steering Group, if they wished to do so.

Following this, steps will be taken to hold culture change workshops to develop a collective vision, ethos and guiding principles; and develop joint working and information sharing protocols, as well as planning how recommendations will be captured for representation at wider boards and steering groups. There will be a dedicated Mental Health Collaborative Board set up, where findings & recommendations will be presented with input from the EbEs. The board will discuss the findings and make decisions on what the next actions will be. Looking at how they can work together to meet the needs of the steering group & how provision can be improved. 

The next step will be to establish a process for identifying focussed lines of enquiry and projects to be published for organisations to submit expressions of interest for grants to deliver this insight work as well as establishing and implementing governance arrangements for grants.

The final part of the process will be to co-produce a logic model and evaluation framework using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) e.g., engagement with underserved groups and diversity; assessing whether people with lived experience have felt involved, listened to and valued throughout. This will include working with services such as PCMH to support EbEs with service user engagement and feedback.

Achievements

A huge achievement has been increasing engagement with organisations that we may not have linked with otherwise. We have also raised awareness in lived experience groups, linked and engaged with Individual Placement Support (IPS) leads and offered pathways for them to develop from engagement experience they have been a part of.

Challenges

The challenges that we foresaw when setting up the service are ensuring that we have continued engagement with people who have lived experience and that they are supported to continue to participate. We offer personalised support to individuals within our Rethink Expert by Experience team, developing relationships & ensuring well-being checks are being made consistently. Another challenge is to ensure we have the funding and resources to develop lived experience roles and, using our experience of system changes, to influence the inclusion of lived experience partnerships and co-production within a wider range of organasations.

Future plans

Our primary aim over the next few months is to continue to develop the Mental Health Collaborative Steering Group and Board and to encourage people with lived experience to join and contribute moving forwards. We are hoping to get involved in a wide range of projects to support service users to access & engage with mental health support within Sheffield.

 If you would like to know more about the service please contact anita.huckerby@rethink.org