Working Together to improve mental health services

Faced with increasing demand, budgets that don’t always keep pace and reports that services didn’t feel joined up, Lambeth council and the Clinical Commissioning Group (who organise and buy services on behalf of the population) took the innovative step of joining forces to improve things.

A New Approach

In the past we might have tried to salami slice budgets and keep things on track. But we realised that there was a better way to organise and provide services. So we formed the Living Well Network Alliance; a partnership of Lambeth Council, Lambeth CCG, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Certitude and Thamesreach.

Working with service users

One of the big differences in this new way of working is that those who use services are seen as partners as well. So as services are designed and developed, people who may use them are central to that discussion and can help make a real difference in the set up of new support. By doing this it will be possible to reduce duplication and the feeling that services are not joined up. This will help to reduce delays and confusion for people who need the services and the staff who provide them.

Prevention not cure

The Living Well Network Alliance is also determined to focus on prevention. We will encourage earlier care so that people receive better, clearer and more joined up care, when and where they most need it, regardless of which organisation is providing it.

Lambeth Together

The Alliance is part of the broader “Lambeth Together” initiative to improve health and care in the borough, providing greater benefits to people, carers and families, staff and organisations. Lambeth Together will create a fully joined up health and care system and is being developed jointly between those who use services (and their families and carers) and those that provide and pay for them. The Living Well Network Alliance is the first of Lambeth Together’s delivery alliances to launch. Other health and care services will form their own alliances in the coming months and years.

Want to find out more?

You can find out more about the Living Well Network Alliance.