1. NHS Partnership project
This project will create five Student Mental Health Regional Hubs connected through a National Learning Collaborative. The five Hubs are Bristol, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, North London, and Sheffield. the project’s mission is to coordinate work between the NHS and universities, so that all students can access the care they need. These partnerships will create conversations and best-practice models locally that will be brought together nationally for testing and scaling by NHS England, Universities UK and mental health charity Student Minds.

2. Context – why are we doing this
2.3million students in higher education in the UK experience significant variation in mental health care.
Minding Our Future report urgent need to better coordinate support and services between universities and local NHS.
The 2.3million students in higher education in the UK experience significant variation in mental health care.
UUK’s ‘Minding our Future’ report identified an urgent need to better coordinate support and care services between universities and local NHS. One of the principle recommendations of the report was the creation of local partnerships focused on increasing quality and improving access, reducing gaps and discontinuities in care according to identified local student need.

3. Aims Improve access to care for students
Co-produce the design and delivery of care with students and practitioners
Drive innovation and shape policy
Evaluate different models of partnership working
Overall aims of the project:
improve access to and coordination of care for students via local partnership working between the NHS and care services and universities.
Co-produce the design and delivery of care with students and practitioners.
Share learning, drive innovation and shape policy on MH care for students.

4. Local objectives
Bristol – create a local partnership and develop a bespoke student referral and care pathway
Manchester - Improve and evaluate existing partnership
Liverpool – develop a dedicated care pathway for community self-care referrals and also students who self-harm
North London – develop a care pathway for full range of mental health presentations and create a website for care pathway resources to be shared publicly
Sheffield – create and evaluate a research clinic to bridge the gap between primary and secondary care
Local partnerships’ initial objectives:
Bristol: The two universities and local NHS will coordinate student population action plans and, working with the WoE AHSN, explore opportunities for digital innovation.
Greater Manchester: GM focus is to improve and evaluate the existing Greater Manchester partnership between HEIs and the NHS.
Liverpool: University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moore’s University will work with the NHS within the Merseycare partnership to develop a care pathway focused specifically on students who self-harm.
North London: UCL and Imperial will develop a needs-based care pathway for the full range of mental health presentations, bringing together the Thrive model with the stepped-care model used in IAPT and other NHS adult mental health services.
Sheffield: Together with UCL, Sheffield will place NHS-funded Trainee Clinical Psychologists and IAPT trainees in university services, increasing capacity and helping to bridge the gap between primary and secondary care with the provision of evidence-based interventions.

5. National Collaborative objectives
Share learning
Support NHS England with student mental health
Embed co-production of service design and delivery with students and practitioners
Develop and test an evaluation framework and measures which can later be shared with elsewhere in the country
Develop recommendations for a digital student health passport and a mental health screening tool
National collaborative initial objectives:
To share learning across the 5 specified partnerships and wider local and national NHS-universities partnerships
To support implementation of NHS England commitment to improve student MH in the LTP.
To embed co-production of service design and delivery with students and practitioners.
With UCL and Sheffield, to develop and test an evaluation framework and measures that could be used by HEI/NHS partnerships elsewhere in the country.
To develop recommendations for specific outputs including a student health passport and a student MH screening tool

6. What will the project deliver?
Partnership working between universities and local NHS services
Final report to share impact of the different regional partnerships
Evidence-based evaluation framework
Recommendations on data sharing, digital student health passports and a mental health screening tool
Improved efficiency of partnership working between universities and the NHS locally, and between regional partnerships and the national level
A final report which will share the impact of different models of regional partnerships between universities, the NHS and students
A clinical risk assessment tool which can be used across the sector
An evidence based evaluation framework and basket of measures that could be used by HEI/NHS partnerships elsewhere in the country
Recommendations on data sharing

7. Benefits of the Project
Improved local partnerships between the HE sector and NHS
Improved care pathways
Sharing of best practice
Evaluated partnership models
Common clinical language for risk assessments and screening
What are the benefits?
Improved local partnerships and connectivity between the HE sector and NHS
Improved care pathways that have been co-produced by students both regionally and nationally in order to meet their needs and work effectively
Sharing of best practice within local HEI/NHS partnerships (either within the regional hubs or outside the project team)
Opportunity to see different partnership models that have been evaluated
Common language used when undertaking a clinical risk assessment, which will allow for data sharing, better evaluation and consistency across the sector