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East of England Collaborative

East of England, NHS Specialist Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Provider Collaborative.

Starting in July 2021 and covering the East of England region, the Collaborative have established new ways of working together to create services and support our patients in a better way that brings together all organisations with the patient voice at the heart of all we do.

East of England Collaborative logo

We are the lead commissioners for specialist mental health services, and by bringing together our clinical, managerial, and patients and carers from across the six leading NHS mental health providers in region and local independent providers across the region we can start to tackle inequalities in care and create more specialist care, closer to home by developing what we call ‘hospital at home’ type care. 

This specialist care is the development of and investment in more intensive community teams that allow people to stay close to their vital support networks within their own communities.

The Collaborative consists of six providers of specialist mental health and learning disability care, including autism. Our independent sector partners also contribute significantly to the development of our services and new ways of delivery.

We commission the following four key services across our mental health and independent providers:

  • Specialised children and young people’s mental health. Inpatient services and Tier 4 community alternatives – including services for young people with an eating disorder
  • Medium and low secure services for adults with a mental illness and/or who have a learning disabilities and/or autism
  • Specialised mental health services for adults who have an eating disorder
  • Perinatal services. Mother and baby units that provide care for mothers experiencing mental health issues.

We commission the following four key services across our mental health and independent providers:

  • Specialised children and young people’s mental health. Inpatient services and Tier 4 community alternatives – including services for young people with an eating disorder
  • Medium and low secure services for adults with a mental illness and/or who have a learning disabilities and/or autism
  • Specialised mental health services for adults who have an eating disorder
  • Perinatal services. Mother and baby units that provide care for mothers experiencing mental health issues.

We can better meet the needs of all our patients by creating a single point of access for referrals, securing fast access to hospital where that is needed, and moving patients from hospitals out of the region back to services closer to home.

With a team of clinicians and referral management experts from across all our providers, we work with patients and their families to assess to offer the most suitable care for that person and wherever possible to offer an alternative to hospital admission.

We will also support patients’ mental health conditions at the start of a diagnosis as well as support our patients following discharge from a hospital with much-needed advice, support, and guidance.

We aim to safely reduce the length of time people spend in hospital where that is appropriate by developing seamless services through the hospital into the community through our work with local authority and social care partners.

The people who use our services work with us to design future services and to help us assure the quality of care we commission.

“We, the patient, and carer advisory group, I work with, help anyone who needs support by doing NHS improvement which then means better services. 

“The Provider Collaborative bring issues to us for new and existing services, and we talk about them and help by sharing our experiences and suggesting ideas of what or how to do it better. 

“These ideas go back and forth until we have an agreement with everyone and change happens.” 

– Service user, Secure Services

By putting our patients and their carers, parents, and families at the heart of everything we do, our aim is to amplify the voices of those with living or lived experience of our care so we can learn and develop services that help meet these needs. 

It is vital for us to work together and co-produce all our work jointly with professionals, patients, and carers alike and share equal power to develop and create services that make a difference now for our current patients and for all our future patients across the East of England.

Here at EPUT, we are one of the three lead providers that host the commissioning contract with NHS England for our Provider Collaborative covering adult medium and low secure services including learning disabilities and autism across the region.

We are dedicated to working together with all our partners and our patients and carers across the East of England to ensure we all deliver better patient care and outcomes.

How to help

If you want to know more about the Provider Collaborative’s work or want to play a part in helping us change our mental health services across the East of England, then please get in touch. 

Getting involved means playing an active role, by understanding our transformational plans you can make a massive difference in how we shape our work and what it will mean to our current and new patients. 

By offering your advice and guidance based on your experiences as an equal member of our teams, you will have the opportunity to share your experiences and offer solutions. We are here to support you in any way you wish to help and offer a helping hand when needed.

If you are a patient with living or lived experience, a carer or parent/family member or friend that has supported a loved one through mental health services, please email us, [email protected] and have a chat with our Person Participation Lead about how we all can learn from each other, co-produce our services together and leave a legacy that we can be proud of, knowing we have done our best in changing mental health services across the East of England.