This week, the Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, wrote about the societal impact of UK’s mental health crisis. He also warned that reforms of mental health services are often too focused on acute care, missing the positive impact and greater potential of existing community-based services.
He noted that the mental health sector has reduced its bed numbers by almost three-quarters over the last 10 years and cited a ‘consistent underestimation of what the sector has achieved and can do in the future’.
We welcome Matthew’s emphasis on the importance of community-based care. At Everyturn, the impact these services have on communities, through our partnerships with the NHS, supporting the 10 Year Health Plan shift from hospital to community-based care.
Through our NHS 111 mental health first response service, our team took over 24,719 calls in 2024/25 and were able to support nearly 70% of callers directly, allowing the NHS crisis team to focus urgent care on people who needed clinical support. Meanwhile, over 37,000 bed days were spent in our community-based residential services, rather than in hospital. In 2024, over 3,813 people walked into or called our three North East safe havens for immediate mental health crisis support, rather than visiting A&E.
The mental health sector does have the solutions to the crisis we’re facing nationally, and we’ve seen their impact first-hand.
Everyturn’s Chief Executive, Adam Crampsie, commented:
“We cannot keep responding to a growing mental health crisis with short-term fixes alone.
“What works is sustained, community-based support that meets people where they are. Accessing support through safe havens on the high street; neighbourhood models like Hope Haven, a 24/7 wellbeing hub in Cumbria; and our Together in a Crisis services providing weekly one-to-one support, offer practical support to people on the social determinants that drive crisis.
“The system now needs to get back what we know works: giving people access to mental health support services where and when they need them, at scale and for the long term.
“These approaches reduce pressure on acute services and, more importantly, help people rebuild stability and hope for the future.”