Joint Mental Health Summit Celebrates Progress

The third NEL Collaborative Mental Health Summit took place on Friday, 28 March 2025, at City Gates Conference Centre in Ilford. It brought together service users and carers with lived experience, alongside colleagues from East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) and North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), to reflect on progress made and look ahead to future improvements.

The day was organised and and facilitated by the Collaborative’s North East London Lived Experience Leaders Group.

The opening session titled "500 Days" showcased key achievements, successes, and ongoing challenges across the collaborative. A powerful panel Q&A followed, featuring lived experience leaders and Executive Members from both Trusts, who discussed what meaningful involvement looks like in practice and the importance of continuing to embed service user voices into the heart of decision-making.

Attendees joined breakout workshops covering a wide range of themes, including:

• Improvement Networks – exploring how to strengthen lived experience involvement and increase impact
• Project Social – highlighting lived experience-led communications work
• Our Community Model – focusing on intensive and assertive outreach approaches

The workshops continued with further sessions on:

• Providing better support for carers – shaped by service user and carer priorities
• Improving cultural awareness and accessibility – a key area for inclusive care
• A second session on the Community Model, reflecting growing interest and engagement in this area

The day closed with a whole-group activity focused on shaping a shared vision for the future, capturing ideas, priorities, and insights from all participants.

Speaking about the success of the Summit, Eileen Taylor, Joint Chair for ELFT and NELFT said: "What’s important to me from this Summit is challenging assumptions we might have about what our patients, carers and communities need. Every time I sit in one of these breakout groups, I realise how wrong many of my assumptions are. It gives us an ideal opportunity to focus on what people are actually telling us they need, rather than what we believe they need."

All discussions and ideas from the summit help shape next steps across the collaborative, ensuring that the experiences and contributions of service users, carers, staff and partners directly inform service improvements across North East London.

A virtual event will be held on Monday, 7 April, for those who were unable to attend. Please contact People Participation Lead, Robert Hunter for more information.