Picker’s response to the Health and Social Care Committee’s inquiry into community mental health services 

Picker responded to the Health and Social Care Committee’s inquiry into community mental health services, drawing on the results from the 2023 community mental health survey, which we are commissioned by the Care Quality Commission to design, deliver and analyse.

Our key messages were:

• The 2023 community mental health survey results show that improvement is needed across the board, with service users reporting generally poor experiences of care.

• Service users would like to see improvement in the support they receive while waiting to access care, their involvement in their care, crisis care support and access, and the support they receive related to other areas of their life.

• We currently have limited information on people’s experiences of waiting for access to community mental health services, as respondents are asked about their experience of waiting after they have accessed care.

• There is also a gap in our understanding of the experience of patients under the age of 16 accessing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

• Three in five older CAMHS users (61%) said they had to wait too long to access services and 60% said their mental health got worse while they were waiting.

• Platforming good practice provides an opportunity to scale what works locally and allows providers to learn from each other and find solutions to common challenges.

• In our view, there is a role for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England in ensuring there is capacity within the system to afford staff the time needed to innovate. As part of this, they need the tools to understand and interpret the rich and robust data already available.

• We would like to see government commit to improved support for people waiting for care across NHS services, delivery of funding that matches current and predicted demand pressures, and commitment to staff numbers that deliver the required capacity to meet these demand pressures.

Our evidence was submitted ahead of the publication of the 2024 community mental health survey results on 3rd April 2025, which are summarised in an infographic.

You can read the full details in our submission here.