Mental Health, Learning Disability and Neurodiversity (MHLDN) Provider Collaborative

Posted by Devon Partnership Trust in News on 11th January, 2023

Devon’s Mental Health, Learning Disability and Neurodiversity (MHLDN) Provider Collaborative came into existence last July.  Whilst collaboratives are nationally-mandated, many organisations have been collaborating well for a long time and Devon has a strong history of successful collaboration across mental health and learning disability, both before and during the pandemic.

The local Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism (MHLDA) Care Partnership led
system-wide delivery of the key requirements of the Long Term Plan for Mental Health and Learning Disability across Devon.  Its development and success was a precursor to the MHLDN Provider Collaborative.

There is a clear mandate for providers to collaborate more effectively to meet the needs of people with mental illness, a learning disability and/or neurodiversity needs. National benchmarking suggests at least 20% growth in demand for specialist MHLDN services on pre-pandemic levels, as well as increased acuity across services – in particular children and young people.  Without change and development:

• The gap in life expectancy for people with serious mental illness and/or learning disability, which is currently around 20 years less than other people, will continue to grow
• Rates of suicide are likely to increase
• We will see further increases in demand for services across the health and care sector
• We may see an increase in the need for placements outside Devon to support people –an area where we have made steady progress in recent years
• We may fail to take advantage of the cost benefits created through more joined-up thinking, planning and working
• Our significant workforce challenges may become even more severe
• Variation and inconsistency across the county may drive inequalities and result in poorer patient experiences and outcomes
• Timely access to care and treatment at a local level may be hindered by  high levels of demand, leading to an increased need for specialist, and more costly, care for someone at a later point in life.

The aim of Collaborative working is to commission and deliver high quality, consistent care across the county, reducing duplication of effort and driving improvement.  Among many other things, it will create much closer planning and working between NHS Devon, Devon Partnership NHS Trust (DPT), Livewell Southwest (LSW) in Plymouth and the recently-created Devon Mental Health Alliance – a partnership between six Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector organisations dedicated to providing support for people experiencing challenges with their mental health.

The Collaborative’s Programme Director, Jacquie Mowbray-Gould, and its Medical Director, Dr Colm Owens, are confident about the potential to deliver improvements over the next five years, despite the tough operating environment that the whole system is facing  a the moment.  They say:  “We are now finalising the operating model and budget for the Collaborative – which is around 16% of the total health spend in Devon.  We have identified six broad priority areas – learning disability and neurodiversity, children and young people, adult community mental health, urgent/crisis care and adult inpatient care and dementia – and we have a wide range of indicators in place to let us know how we are performing in these areas.  We already know that there are some areas of concern in terms of local services having the capacity to meet increasing demand, for example young people with an eating disorder, but we are also making very encouraging progress in other areas, in particular with developments and improvements in community mental health services. 

“Our overriding aim as we move forward is to improve wherever we can in the design, commissioning and delivery of services for people of all ages.”

Partnership and working alongside people with lived experience is at the heart of the Collaborative’s culture and approach.  Tom Cox, from the Devon Mental Health Alliance, says:  “It is very much a positive development that organisations from the VCSE sector are right at the heart of the thinking and planning that is going on across the county.  We have a huge amount of expertise and experience to offer and we feel that we really have the ability to influence the direction of travel.  It’s a very exciting time and the six organisations that make up the Alliance – Devon MIND, CoLab Exeter, Rethink Mental Illness, Improving Lives, Shekinah and Step One – will be working closely with other local community organisations in due course to drive ahead with projects and improvements.”

For more information about Devon’s MHLDN Provider Collaborative, contact Jacquie directly on jmowbray-gould@nhs.net