The centrepiece of our current work is a culturally appropriate mental health fund designed to capture good practices happening within the VCSE sector, and to ensure that the learning is embedded into the way the system works. We have earmarked £750,000 to provide support to people from marginalised communities experiencing severe mental illness (SMI), in particular people from Black and Asian communities. This has been supplemented by £150,000 in mental wellbeing funds to test out innovative approaches to improving mental health and wellbeing in different communities.
Working with a racially diverse steering group, we designed an innovative way to build these partnerships. We initially went out for short expressions of interest to be part of this work and received 86 applications from across Greater Manchester. This alone showed a wealth of work that is currently being undertaken around culturally appropriate approaches.
A final panel meeting took place on 17 May 2022 and the agreement was made to fund 31 of the projects. As part of several partnership approaches across the programme, we will be funding 39 black and minority ethnic VCSE organisations in 2022/23. A priority will be to develop this into a sustainable and ongoing fund through evaluation and demonstrating impact. Learning and best practice in working with these different VCSE organisations and communities will inform future commissioning intentions and it is essential that they are connected to mainstream services.
This work builds on funding that was given to a number of VCSE organisations from Black and minority ethnic communities during the Covid-19 pandemic, recognising the disproportionate impact on people from these communities.
We are actively involved with Synergi as Pledge Makers and as members of the Synergi National Pledge Alliance.
Both mental health trusts (Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust) are developing robust equality and diversity strategies that align with the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF).
Both trusts have employed Heads of Diversity and Inclusion to lead a dedicated workshop to progress this. Work is underway to ensure that the approaches of both mental health trusts are linked to create a Greater Manchester strategic direction.
This is both one of our clear strategic priorities but also one of our specific areas for improvement.
It is acknowledged that we need to significantly improve how we capture diversity information about the use of services by those from minority ethnic backgrounds. Discussion is ongoing about how we can develop better monitoring arrangements and it is a clear priority as we move formally into the Integrated Care System from July 2022.
This is an area where we feel we have made great strides, both in regards to the culturally appropriate mental health fund, but also with the work undertaken as part of the accord that Greater Manchester has with the VCSE sector.
Through the culturally appropriate mental health fund, Greater Manchester has funded 39 key black and minority ethnic community organisations. The support has been given to provide culturally appropriate mental health services that are symbiotic with, and linked to mainstream provision.
The expectation is that we will develop a relationship with these 39 organisations that is above and beyond that of the funder/funded. Through communities of practice and creating strong interconnected links, the expectation is these organisations will support us to better understand and cater for the communities they serve.
To support the mental health element of the accord that Greater Manchester has with the VCSE sector, a VCSE mental health leadership group has been developed. Within that group, several black and minority ethnic community organisations are providing clear leadership in this area and sit within Greater Manchester Mental Health governance groups. There are also clear connections (through the system lead for VCSE integration post) with Greater Manchester equals (the VCSE equality body) and the BAME Leaders Association.
Additionally to this post, heads of diversity and inclusion at the two mental health trusts have built their own user networks within black and minority ethnic communities.
Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP) see its commitment to the Synergi Pledge as being a testament to its desire to provide national leadership on this critical issue.
Our hope is this will inspire other Integrated Care Systems to Pledge. We feel that initiatives like our culturally appropriate mental health fund illustrate good practice and how we work alongside black and minority ethnic VCSE organisations.
We are considering how we can sensitively and clearly publicise our approach.
We can only ensure inclusive and sustainable change in our localities and communities if we work in collaboration with them. Therefore, central to the Greater Manchester approach is our work with the VCSE sector.
If we are to ensure ethnicity is not a barrier to being able to access appropriate mental health services we need to ensure that the providers of services understand the different communities that make up the localities. This can only be done by building sustained and mutually beneficial partnerships.
We are seeing the Community Mental Health Transformation Programme as a key vehicle to ensure that those relationships and partnerships are built. By involving VCSE leaders, and those with lived experience from the start, we can create co-production structures that are about much more than just ‘consultation’.
In Greater Manchester, we are using the Living Well model as the engine room for the delivery of the community mental health transformation programme. Its collaborative and person-centred ethos is driving our approach to inclusion at a locality level.
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH) has funded the establishment of a dedicated Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Research Unit (EDI-RU).
The new EDI-RU will be led by Professor Dawn Edge and colleagues from The University of Manchester: Professors Alys Young, John Keady, James Nazroo and Drs Katherine Rogers and Sarah Peters.
The Unit will take an intersectional, life-course approach to research inequalities in mental and physical health. Alongside improving care and outcomes for service users and their families, the EDI-RU will support staff to become research active.
The EDI-RU will work closely with existing Research Units, producing sector-leading research to:
Yes, we plan to.
Greater Manchester is on a journey. We are not always going to take all the right actions and do this at the speed that it actually needs to be achieved. We are learning and we are being challenged and need to do this alongside other regions and partners grappling with challenges in reducing ethnic inequalities. This is incredibly important for how we begin to rectify decades of mistakes.
Greater Manchester is committed to reducing inequalities within the mental health system but to move forward, we must be honest that these inequalities still exist. We will not solve this tomorrow. We will not solve this next week. We are unlikely to have solved this in a decade’s time. However, we are determined to learn from our previous mistakes and to proactively work to ensure that racial identity is not a barrier to getting the support a person needs, when they need it most.
On Thursday 25th November 2021, the Synergi National Pledge Alliance was launched (virtually) in response to Pledge commitment 4: To provide national leadership on this critical issue, which you can find out more about here.
The Alliance’s primary aims are to:
In Greater Manchester, we acknowledge that we still have a way to go to ensure that our mental health services are equitable in terms of access, outcome and experience. But this is a journey we are committed to make. We are also humble enough to admit that it is a journey that we cannot make alone, therefore the involvement of the VCSE sector and the varied and diverse communities we serve is essential.