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Community mental health service review

We’re working to improve community mental health services for adults with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) across Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

Our goal is to provide: 

  • Better designed services around the people who use them.
  • Earlier support, so fewer people need intensive treatment.
  • Improved experiences and outcomes for patients and their families.

By March 2027, we aim to make care more joined-up, personalised, and accessible.

Why are we making these changes?

Last year NHS England asked all Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to look closely at how their community mental health services work. The aim was to review how community mental health services support people with severe mental illness, especially those who find it hard to use standard services and need more regular and focused help in the community.

We were asked to work with our local ICB review current community mental health services and decide whether they meet people’s needs and find where things could be better. A big part of this is the new Personalised Care Framework, which will help make sure people with severe mental illness get consistent, person‑focused, and well‑coordinated care.

This work aims to make community mental health services better, so fewer people need intensive support. 

How are we doing this?

We’ve created five key workstreams to drive improvements:

  1. Legislation and Policy – Clear, transparent policies aligned with the Mental Health Act and Capacity Act.
  2. Assertive community offer – Proactive support for those who need it most.
  3. Clinical pathways, multi-agency working and information sharing – Streamlined processes for safe, effective care, and better collaboration with housing, voluntary sector, and other partners.
  4. Working closely with families – Embedding family involvement and recovery-focused care plans.
  5. Personalised care 

What does this mean for patients and their families?

  • More opportunities for patients and carers to shape and design our services.

What are the community mental health services?

We work together with GPs and other local organisations to provide joined-up, person-centred care, helping you to receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time.

Get involved

We’re committed to making sure patients, families, and carers are actively involved in shaping this project. If you’d like to:

  • Learn more about what we’re doing
  • Support the project as an Expert by Experience
  • Share feedback or explore opportunities to get involved

We would love to hear from you!

Contact our Patient Experience and Engagement Team:

  • Email: whcnhs.communityengagement@nhs.net

Project news and updates

January 2026

  • We have reviewed all the information about our services on our website. We made sure it is up-to-date, easy to understand and follows health literacy guidance.
  • We have also created a new online hub for community mental health services. This will grow over the next few months. It will help patients and families find the information they need in one simple place.
  • We are currently writing a project charter. This will explain our aims, how we plan to work and how we will measure our progress. We will add it to this page when it is ready.
  • We are in regular contact with other NHS community mental health service providers across England. We are learning from their approaches and looking at what could work well here in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
  • We recently carried out a survey with our carers about their experiences of our services. Thank you to everyone who took part. The results will be available next month and will be shared with the project team.
  • We are looking at ways we identify and record information on carers on our patient record systems. We are also developing guidance for our staff to promote early conversations with patients about their family and/or carer arrangements.  
  • We are looking to improve and increase engagement with experts by experience – these are people who have accessed our services. We are also hoping to introduce a new Peer Support Worker role into our services.
  • We have reviewed our patient letters, developing them in collaboration with patients to ensure they are easy to understand, and contain helpful information and signposting to support services.