Improving across the boundaries of Acute and Mental Health
We are committed to supporting members to implement improvement solutions to known national challenges.
One of these challenges is what happens at the interface between the emergency department and secondary mental health services, and how a person with mental health needs presenting at A&E is cared for and managed.
Resolving this is critical to improving care and patient experience and outcomes for people with mental health needs. It is also important for dealing with operational challenges, improving processes and relationships between staff.
Our new improvement collaborative programme delivered in partnership with NHS England's Mental Health Improvement Support Team seeks to strengthen and encourage cross system working by supporting practical, real-time testing of improvement ideas across these boundaries.
The development programme - interface working across mental health and acute care
The programme will run for 12-months from May 2025 to April 2026. There will be a total of six virtual learning sessions, supported by three webinars.
Throughout the programme, all teams will receive extensive support to design and implement solutions to overcome challenges to interface working in your areas.
In total, 12 mental health trusts are involved across 18 separate locations for acute care, including hospitals, A&Es and emergency departments.
Click the map to view a more detailed breakdown of sites on Google.
Participating teams
Region | Location | Organisations Involved |
|---|---|---|
| East of England | Bedfordshire | Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and East London NHS Foundation Trust |
| East of England | Essex | East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust and Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust |
| London | Guys and St Thomas | Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust |
| North East | Northumbria | Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Northumberland Tyne & Wear Mental Health Trust |
| North West | Cheshire and Wirral | Arrow Park Hospital NHS Trust and Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust |
| South East | Berkshire | Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust and Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust |
| South East | Kent & Medway | Maidstone & Tonbridge Wells NHS Trust and North East London Foundation Trust |
| South East | Surrey Heartlands | Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Ashford and St Peters Hospitals Foundation Trust, and Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust |
| South West | Avon & Wiltshire | Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust |
| South West | Dorset | University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust and Dorset HealthCare NHS Foundation Trust |
| West Midlands | Birmingham | Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | Yorkshire | Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust and South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust |
Applications for the programme in 2025 have now closed.
We will continue to update this page over the course of the 12-month programme to share news and resources. You can also view our interface improvement learning hub here, which includes video guides and other resources, curated from a previous interface improvement programme we ran in 2024 to support teams working at the boundaries of primary and secondary care.
