PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(20 January 2025)

Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust is introducing its Time to Care programme to transform the delivery of mental health inpatient services so that every patient receives high quality, personalised care to support their long-term recovery. The programme launched in 2022 and NHS England has advised that it will take five years to mobilise and embed the programme.

The results of the programme are expected to include: patients, along with their families and carers, to be involved in decision-making about the treatment, therapies and support they receive whilst they are an inpatient, and to have a clear plan for their care during their admission and after they are discharged; the average length of time that people need to spend on an inpatient mental health ward to be reduced; and the number of inappropriate out of area placements for patients needing acute mental health inpatient care in Essex to be reduced or eliminated.