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Underpinning Themes

While the 7 core project areas are central to the Programme one of the the key component to the success of the programme is the establishment of structures, initiatives and integrated practice that work to ensure that the improved opportunities for people with mental health problems is sustainable and embedded within the activities and thinking of all stakeholders and service providers. Collaborative and cross cutting work, as a standard, is central to the sustainability. The 5 cross cutting strands of work are:

Links to Delivering Race Equality

The programme is concentrated on ensuring that race equality issues are embedded with both the strategic and delivery components of the work. Further to the tackling inequalities cross cutting work, the NSIP programme director represents the NSIP on the board of the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Programme that oversees delivery of the DH BME Strategy ‘Delivering Race Equality’.

From a delivery perspective, a review of the RDC Social Inclusion project plans for each area was conducted by the Race Equality Specialists representing the Social Inclusion programme. A number of recommendations has been made, this is in the light of growing recognition for more synergy between the NIMHE Race Equality Programme and the Social Inclusion Programme.

The following recommendations were made for the next phase of the work of the Social Inclusion Programme, which the Social Inclusion Core Team is eager to see implemented:

Actions pertaining to Race equality will be developed to be more specific.
Clear links will be established between the work programmes of the 17 Focused Implementation Sites (FIS) across the regions. FIS are a whole systems approach to race equality in mental health and will demonstrate good practice in the field of Race equality in mental health.
To support and involve the target of 500 new Community Development Workers.
Share and incorporate the learning from the 80 community engagement projects across the regions.

Developing Partnerships

Collaboration and networking at strategic level across sectors is essential to sustaining tomorrow the action being put in place today. With this in mind, in addition to the work of our specific projects, the programme has also created links with other strands of work across government with particular relevance to social inclusion. For example the programme worked with the Civil Renewal Unit at the Home Office to ensure that the thinking behind the national strategy for user engagement ‘Together We Can’ reflects our work, as well as with DH itself where NSIP has been linked to the work of the Department’s Equalities and Human Right Group.

Outside of government, the NSIP and Disability Rights Commission (DRC) have established a joint standing group and the programme is represented on the National Disability Forum, while links to the Local Government sector have been made through a collaboration with the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS).

Internally, NSIP has established connection or joint work with most other NIMHE programmes. With the National Workforce Programme (and Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health) for example, we have established a joint Social Inclusion Workforce initiative to ensure that current measures and approaches to professional and non-aligned workforce development adequately reflect the capabilities needed for socially inclusive practice.

The Primary Care Programme has been involved in the NSIP initiative to establish a primary care social inclusion network and our submission, in June 2005, to the current review of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QoF) for Primary Care that seeks to incorporate, as envisaged in the SEU report, inclusive practice, particularly in respect of vocational advice and support, into the GP contract and therefore, the day to day clinical work of primary care practices.

Following a presentation by the Programme Director to the National Mental Health Partnership (Chief Executives and Directors of Trusts) in January 2005, a proposal was produced for an Inclusion development programme with a small number of Trusts, each of which would receive direct engagement from NSIP’s national team in support of their leadership of a specific programme area. This work is in progress and we are pleased to have secured on a one day per week secondment Professor Steve Onyett to work with NSIP on the leadership development aspects of the programme with a particular focus on participating Trusts.

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