The government is seeking evidence and views primarily from healthcare organisations and those with expertise in workforce planning to inform the development of the 10 Year Workforce Plan.
This call for evidence is an opportunity to provide views on the government’s plans for the next decade and to share examples and case studies that will support delivery.
The call for evidence closes at 11:59pm on 7 November 2025.
Section 1: the three shifts
The 10 Year Health Plan for England is making three big shifts to how the NHS works:
- from hospital to community: more care will be available on people’s doorsteps and in their homes
- from analogue to digital: new technology will liberate staff from admin and allow people to manage their care as easily as they bank or shop online
- from sickness to prevention: we’ll reach patients earlier and make the healthy choice the easy choice
They are seeking evidence on how the three shifts are being implemented locally, and the impact on your workforce.
Centre for Mental Health response:
Mental health services, in the NHS and its partners in local government and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, have for a long time sought to balance community support with hospital care. They are considerably ahead of most areas of physical health care in achieving this shift, but it is unfinished business. While the vast majority of mental health support is now provided in community settings, around half of NHS specialist mental health services spending is on hospital-based care.
We have explored the potential for a further shift from hospital to the community through the provision of a range of alternatives and approaches to mental health care that enable people to stay at home, get support in their own community, and return home safely when they need support away from home. Read more in our Care beyond beds report.
For many people with a range of mental health difficulties, social support is vital to improve outcomes, prevent crises or relapses, and promote recovery. Help with housing, money, work and other social needs is at the heart of good mental health care. Yet it is still seen as marginal to clinical care and treatment.
Centre for Mental Health has supported the expansion of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) employment services across the country, working alongside IPS Grow most recently and providing training to a new generation of employment specialists. This is a crucial role in the mental health system, which barely existed ten years ago. Yet without it, thousands of people with a mental illness would be denied the best support with employment (for more information, see our Individual Placement and Support briefing).
Alongside IPS, there is an important role for housing, money and welfare advice services, tailored to mental health care settings. These are specialist roles that require the specific knowledge and expertise to offer effective help – for example with benefits, with landlords, lenders, or the law. And as with IPS, they should not be seen as luxury extras for mental health services, but a fundamental part of the system, available to all who need them when they need them. Some NHS mental health trusts are now employing housing workers within clinical teams, or placing mental health workers in housing offices to enable greater join-up between the two (read more, here). Centre for Mental Health is currently exploring the evidence for welfare advice in mental health services and will publish the results later this year.
A case study by the NHS Confederation of Southern Health NHS Trust and New Forest District Council also shows how embedding a mental health nurse within housing teams can help people remain in their homes or secure suitable accommodation within the community. Read the report here.
There is a wealth of evidence about the benefits of peer support workers in mental health services. There are now more than 1,000 employed in mental health services in England, making it one of the fastest growing groups in the workforce. A review by the Mental Health Policy Research Unit recently explored evidence about peer support workers and is summarised here.
Section 2: modelling assumptions
The workforce built today will determine whether the NHS can deliver the ambitions of the 10 Year Health Plan. That means challenging old assumptions, testing new ideas and being honest about what the future demands.
This section seeks evidence on:
- specific assumptions you use in workforce modelling
- how that impacts on workforce supply and demand, including career and training pathways.
Centre for Mental Health response:
Mental health specialists will always be in shorter supply than we are likely to need. But by building a wider workforce with some mental health knowledge and skill, we can meet many more people’s needs. From skill-sharing arrangements with faith and community organisations to skilling-up workers in long-term conditions services, maternity and general practice (among others) we can expand the overall capacity of the system while retaining mental health specialists to provide support to those who need it most. For example, ensuring that midwives and health visitors are trained in mental health interventions and have the time to ask women and birthing people about their mental health, enables earlier help to be offered for those who are struggling during the perinatal period. Data modelling on this topic can be found in our report, A sound investment, here.
Skill-sharing also tackles the artificial separation of mental and physical health – enabling practitioners in other services to have conversations with people being treated for long-term conditions about their mental wellbeing and offer basic advice and help. While some people will also need specialist input, for many this may be sufficient to address emotional health issues quickly and prevent further problems. It is also essential that the mental health workforce is able to support people to manage their physical health (for example offering advice and information about physical activity and smoking cessation) and that the entire health workforce is able to work effectively with people living with mental illness. An equivalent to the Oliver McGowan training programme for people with severe mental illness might help to reverse the current 15-20 year life expectancy gap for this group.
Workforce planning must also factor in the ageing population. One person over 65 in ten has a current mental health difficulty, with higher rates among those who have physical health conditions or other major risk factors. As the population ages, mental health workers will need the skills to work effectively with older people (see our report, Mental health in later life, here).
We need to plan now for the workforce we’ll need in the years to come, which means thinking about what services should look like in that time and building a workforce to match that. This may mean less reliance on inpatient services, or different types of inpatient and community service that meet people’s needs more effectively than existing patterns of provision. The current division between inpatient and community services (and the people who work in each) may no longer be so relevant in a decade’s time, with the NHS 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres currently being tested in six local areas providing examples of a promising approach, with evaluation in progress.
A modernised curriculum would embrace the growing levels of complexity in people’s lives, building confidence and knowledge in a wide range of social as well as clinical interventions. It would ensure mental health practitioners can effectively and holistically meet the needs of those with multiple conditions, particularly neurodiversity, substance use, or physical health problems, alongside mental ill health. It would provide workers with the knowledge, understanding and tools to adopt anti-racist, anti-oppressive, gender-aware and trauma-informed practices and approaches. Further exploration of trauma-informed approaches is available here.
A curriculum for the future would also recognise the importance of digital technologies in our lives and would take advantage of this to improve people’s care and experiences. This would see the roll out of evidence based digital interventions, safe and effective use of artificial intelligence and digital wearables, and the use of digital systems to drive efficiency and innovation.
Section 3: productivity gains from wider 10 Year Health Plan implementation
In his independent investigation of the NHS in England, Lord Darzi said:
Falling productivity doesn’t reduce the workload for staff. Rather, it crushes their enjoyment of work. Instead of putting their time and talents into achieving better outcomes, clinicians’ efforts are wasted on solving process problems, such as ringing around wards desperately trying to find available beds.
This section seeks evidence on:
- the top digital initiatives delivered
- actions taken to identify and address gaps in training (pre or post-registration) that support delivery of the 3 shifts
- policies or initiatives that have enabled the NHS to play a bigger role in local communities (for example, widening access, creating opportunities or supporting underserved groups)
- examples of managing changing expectations and increasing patient participation in their care through digital tools
Centre for Mental Health response:
The mental health workforce includes large numbers of people working in local government, voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sectors. Very often, it is the latter that best reaches people and communities that do not trust or feel safe in statutory mental health services. Workforce planning must be attuned to the reality that mental health care is provided in a range of settings and sectors.
Current education, training and employment practice does not reflect this reality. Placement opportunities are limited to more traditional settings, such as inpatient wards. Moving between sectors can be difficult for many people – for example losing pension entitlements. And there remains a large pay gap between statutory and voluntary sector jobs. We need to enable members of the workforce to move between sectors from early in their careers onwards.
An important example of the role of the VCSE sector is that of early support hubs for young people. These were a government manifesto commitment, building on an existing network of around 60 Youth Advice, Information and Counselling Services (YIACS). We have produced a ‘blueprint’ for the expansion of this model countrywide, including the workforce that will be needed to provide young people with the holistic support they require.
Mental health workforce planning needs to incorporate social work and social care as a whole: its absence from previous plans has left a major gap in systems and under-investment in a workforce that is struggling to meet demand. This is particularly important now, with reform to the Mental Health Act to be delivered over the next ten years and local government playing a crucial role in the provision of approved mental health professionals (AMHPs) and commissioning of Independent Mental Health Act Advocacy services. These are not mere adjuncts of NHS services but equal partners in delivering holistic care. Read more here.
Section 4: culture and values
The 10 Year Health Plan made it clear that great culture and great leadership go hand in hand with better quality care.
This section seeks evidence of:
- policy interventions that have directly improved workforce outcomes and patient outcomes (for example, retention, staff wellbeing, reducing sickness absence, as well as better quality care)
- approaches that have successfully embedded strong core values into everyday leadership, decision making and service delivery
- systems or practices that ensure leaders at all levels actively listen to staff feedback – particularly from underrepresented groups – and act on it
Centre for Mental Health response:
The Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) is a structural change process for the NHS to address racial inequity in mental health services. Building a mental health workforce that has the skills, knowledge, diversity and experience (including lived experience) necessary to provide equitable treatment is essential to the PCREF. This means working in partnership with communities and community organisations to develop and implement plans together.
It is vital that the ten-year workforce plan supports PCREF and sets out the ways in which the health care workforce will be developed to practise anti-racism. This will require systemic change, from professional education and training to career development and the relationship between the NHS and its VCSE partners.
Section 5: any additional comments
Any other comments, information or evidence you would like to share as part of this call for evidence that you think would help deliver the ambitions of the 10 Year Health Plan.
Last year, we hosted a roundtable in partnership with Mind and the NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network to explore the challenges facing the mental health workforce and the need for new approaches to training, employment and career development. The resulting briefing highlighted that meeting the nation’s mental health needs will require a workforce that goes beyond traditional boundaries, one that brings together a broader mix of roles, skills and lived experiences. Building a more diverse and representative workforce, while prioritising staff wellbeing and retention, will be essential to creating a sustainable and compassionate mental health system for the future.
