Mental Health Network
A powerful national advocate for mental health, pressing for mental health to receive the priority it deserves from government and national bodies.
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Exclusively for providers of NHS-funded mental health care, we help shape and challenge national policy and legislation affecting our members.
We make sense of the broader political and policy environment, and provide members with up-to-date news and analysis. We also work to identify and spread good practice and innovation in the mental health sector.
Why join?
Membership unlocks access to opportunities to ensure members’ voices are at the heart of national decision-making, meeting with politicians, policymakers and opinion-formers to influence change.
Our events provide spaces for members to hear from key influencers and network with peers. They unite mental health service providers, national bodies, political parties and cutting-edge researchers.
We dissect the big issues and keep our members up to date with the latest knowledge and thinking affecting the sector.
This is in addition to:
- exclusive insights, resources and digital communities designed to help navigate complexity
- opportunities for direct engagement with government, parliament and national bodies.
Forums to connect, share and learn
Forums exclusively for mental health providers
- Mental Health Trust Chairs Forum: chairs of mental health trusts and foundation trusts; meets fortnightly.
- Mental Health Medical Directors Forum: medical directors of mental health trusts and foundation trusts; meets monthly.
- Third Sector Group: third sector leaders.
- Learning Disabilities Forum: members that provide or commission services for people with a learning disability; meets quarterly.
- Housing Forum: members with an interest in housing services; meets quarterly.
- Independent Sector Providers Forum: mental health independent sector providers of inpatient services; meets monthly.
For non-statutory providers
- NHS Leaders Forum: leaders of community interest companies only; meets quarterly
- Community Network: leaders of voluntary and independent sector providers that are delivering NHS-funded community care, for example community interest companies; chairs, chief executives, board directors and senior executives of trusts/FTs providing community services; three events per year.
- NHS Work and Health Forum: all non-statutory members with an interest in the NHS’s role in supporting people into work; meets monthly.
- NHS Workforce Leaders Forum: workforce leads in all non-statutory members.
- NHS Digital Innovation Leaders Forum: digital leads in all non-statutory members; meets quarterly.
- NHS Digital Innovation Leaders Forum: digital leads in all non-statutory members; meets quarterly.
- NHS Communications Forum: communications and engagement leads in all non-statutory members; meets quarterly..
- Outpatient Reform Forum: all non-statutory members with an interest in outpatient reform; meets quarterly.
- Mental Health Medical Directors Forum: medical leads in non-statutory members.
- NHS BME Leadership Network: All non-statutory members.
- NHS LGBTQ+ Leadership Network: all non-statutory members.
- NHS Women Leaders Network: all non-statutory members.
- NHS Disability Leadership Network: all non-statutory members.
Our priorities for 2026/27
- Being a strong, unified, voice on the need for mental health to be a greater focus in decisions about funding, reform and political focus.
- Ensuring member priorities inform developments such as the prevalence review, modern service frameworks, and the CQC assessment framework.
- Supporting members around longer term developments, such as contributing to what strategic commissioning in mental health may look like, and how to make the interface of primary and secondary mental health care work more effectively.
- Through our collaboration with the Mental Health Policy Group, we will meet directly with key figures to bring your challenges and concerns, as well as your innovations and improvements, to the highest levels of decision making