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NHS reforms - the 'listening exercise'

In April the Government put the brakes on its NHS reforms to listen to the concerns that various people had about them. 

An independent panel, called Future Forums, produced a report that was released with a series of recommendations. Mind campaigned to put across the mental health perspective. Mind's Chief Executive was also on the Future Forum group representing your views. 

Much of our work was based on the results of a survey that we asked you all to complete. Thank you to everyone who contributed – we got a fantastic 1,442 responses and are pleased to report that the majority of Mind's recommended changes, which cover concerns shared by a range of other health organisations, have been accepted.

We are particularly pleased to see:

• a much stronger commitment to patient and public involvement in the new health service. For example, local Health and Wellbeing boards will now have to include two members of the public, overseeing public involvement and governance.

• recognition that GP commissioners will need support from other health professionals. GP consortia (now clinical commissioning groups) will involve a wider range of health professionals, decided on locally. There will also be 'Clinical Sentates' providing condition-specific advice and the cancer network model will be extended to other health conditions.

• The integration of care pathways, especially joining up health and social care services, is now prioritised over competition between providers . For example, clinical commissioning groups will now have the same geographical boundaries as Local Authorities (who provide social care and joined up personal health and social care budgets are being pursued.

Read our full analysis of how the changes line up with Mind's recommendations.

While Mind is pleased that the government has listened to NHS staff, patients, carers and their representatives, the work is not yet done. We will continue to scrutinise the wording of the Health and Social Care Bill as to passes through Parliament.

We will continue to campaign to ensure people with experience of mental health problems are involved in the design of services, to raise the quality of care and to ensure that there is more choice in mental health treatments.

Read more about the aims of our NHS reforms campaign.