Current services
Leicestershire County Council commissions a range of services, in some cases jointly commissioned with other LLR local authorities and the ICB, to enable people to manage their mental health and increase their resilience. These services support people to remain in their own homes and communities and provide links to other sources of support around the wider determinants of health, such as housing, debt advice, healthy eating initiatives etc.
Almost one in four people in the UK experience at least one mental health problem each year, with one in six experiencing a common mental health problem, such as anxiety or depression, in any given week.
The latest data for Leicestershire shows that the percentage of people with severe mental illness on GP practice registers is significantly lower than England, with an increasing trend over time in line with the national trend. Acute mental health admissions for Leicestershire are also significantly lower than England average. However, acute mental health bed days are significantly higher than England average. This suggests that although less people are going into hospital compared to the England average, those that do go in stay there for longer than average.
The majority of social care support for eligible people with mental health needs is provided via commissioning for older people for example, within home care, community life choices, supported living and residential and nursing care as well as via Personal Assistants (PAs) through a direct payment. People also self-fund their care and a substantial amount of care is provided by families and other informal carers. Leicestershire County Council is keen to further develop the PA market in relation to mental health.
Adult social care mental health services in Leicestershire are:
Mental Health Wellbeing and Recovery Support Service (MHWRSS)
The MHWRSS is a jointly commissioned service between Leicestershire County Council and the ICB. The provision is open access and not governed by eligibility criteria.
The current providers operate in lots across the County:
- Mental Health Matters operates in North-West Leicestershire and Hinckley & Bosworth
- Richmond Fellowship operates in Harborough and Blaby, Oadby, Wigston
- Nottingham Community Housing Association (NCHA) operates in Charnwood and Melton
The service offers the following interventions to support individuals:
- Advice and navigation - support for people with multiple issues and any carers to identify and understand their needs, access the right services and overcome barriers to accessing services
- Community recovery support - supporting people to regain and sustain confidence to engage in everyday activities
The specification also includes the following requirements around service delivery:
- Mental health awareness activity, including engagement with communities to address stigma and raise awareness of sources of support
- Working with mental health system partners to support the development of peer support networks
- Becoming embedded within Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs)
The Mental Health Wellbeing and Recovery Support Service was recommissioned in 2022 and will run until at least September 2025, with the option of extensions until 2027.
Mental Health Accommodation Pathway Project
Leicestershire County Council will support people in Leicestershire with mental health needs to live in a place called home surrounded by the people they love and with access to the things they choose to do.
The Council will ensure that we have access to suitable accommodation across the county and within communities where people can live in their own home, with the support they need, and do the things that matter to them.
The Council will work closely with partners in health, housing and the independent and voluntary sectors to ensure the right support is available at the right time and in the right place, to help adults with mental health needs to stay well and have greater choice and control over their lives.
This will be achieved by:
- Making sure adults aged 18-67 years old with mental health needs are only placed in a residential care setting for as short a time as possible, on a temporary basis. By working closely with adults aged 18-67 years old with mental health needs, their families and carers, residential care providers and health professionals, we will identify and support them to live in a place called home.
- Individuals will be supported to have the right flexible help in the right place at the right time. When they are able, support services will be stepped back to enable people have more control over their life, but if that help is needed in the future it will be available to enable them to remain in their own home.
Leicestershire County Council is committed to the strategic vision that no working age adult with mental health as their primary need should be placed in permanent residential care placements by 2025.
Building Based Commissioned Mental Health Support
Leicestershire County Council will be seeking to work with residential care homes that can demonstrate effective progression models of delivery to help achieve the strategic vision outlined above.
The Council has committed to increasing the number of building based supported living placements available to people with mental health as their primary diagnosis and also to provide more supported living placements to people with dual diagnosis (mental health and substance misuse) issues.
Most supported living placements are commissioned through the Leicestershire County Council Dynamic Purchasing System.
The Council commissions a specific building based, Mental Health Recovery and Rehabilitation Service, for people recovering from significant mental health problems with a high level of social care need, who require intensive skills development and support to increase their level of independence and prevent the need for a more intensive level of support or supervision in the future, provided in a safe, staffed environment. This service is being recommissioned in 2023.
Community Based Community Mental Health Support
To facilitate step down from building based services (as well as providing a ‘step up’ option to prevent the need for building based services), the Council has commissioned a ‘floating support’ service, ‘Positive Steps’.
Floating support is a resource that has been commissioned to enhance the Mental Health Accommodation Pathway, and has been introduced to ensure that more people are able to step down from residential care and building based supported living and also to provide support to people to avoid the requirement for residential care and building based supported living. The service also enables people to be discharged from hospital with support in their own home, reducing the need for residential care and building based supported living.
This service
- Creates a pathway for people to move from hospital, residential care or supported living to independence in the community.
- Provides an integrated staff team where support workers are wellbeing and person focussed, are operating on the principle of supporting people to develop their ability to do things for themselves.
- Provides flexible levels of support to minimise the risk of tenancy breakdown, to be able to provide more intensive support when needed and increase the potential for long term wellbeing.
Commissioning aspirations, intentions and opportunities
Work will continue on developing the Mental Health Accommodation Pathway, particularly in relation to supported living schemes that can evidence progression towards independence. Supported living placements in Leicestershire are currently commissioned through the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS).
The Council will continue to work with partners across the ICS to develop and facilitate community-based initiatives that support people to remain and thrive in their own homes and communities. The Council also provides ‘Shire Grants’ to VCSE organisations to support communities across Leicestershire.
Page last updated in June 2023.