Combining virtual and regional events for national action on better mental health

The challenge

Following the ‘Five Year Forward View for Mental Health’, Public Health England was asked to consider how the successful approach of the Crisis Care Concordat could be applied to the promotion of good mental health and the prevention of mental health problems. The result, the Prevention Concordat for Better Mental Health, was consulted on in late 2016, published in 2017, and disseminated in 2018. This was a complex change process, requiring close involvement of a range of stakeholders in both its design and delivery. Crucially, the programme had to avoid the fate of ‘another document gathering dust’, meaning the need to stimulate peer-to-peer learning that could last beyond the initial publication. Timescales meant that both the original consultation and drafting, and subsequent shared learning, had to proceed at significant pace.

Improving the wellbeing of communities is a major priority for national and local government. Doing so effectively requires learning from each other as well as joining up action across different organisations.While there was commitment to do this, there was a significant gap in spaces where different organisations could come together to learn, share and plan. There was also a gap in terms of the national government guidance available for local areas – meaning that a new approach needed to be consulted on, drafted and shared with stakeholders.

Our approach

Kaleidoscope worked with national organisations (including Public Health England) to run over 20 virtual and regional events over two years to help achieve the government’s stretching ambition for better mental health and wellbeing.

Working with the King’s Fund, and the Centre for Mental Health, we designed an approach that focused on interaction between participants, sharing what was working (or not) in their areas, and how Public Health England could support them.

The virtual and face-to-face events were deliberately designed to complement each other – the virtual events providing a ‘national curriculum’ which could be accessed live or recorded by anyone at any time, and the regional events focusing on organisations working together locally.

Alongside the events, Kaleidoscope also:

• undertook research into how national documents can best support local change
• conducted semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders to research how national documents can best support local change
• drafted the Prevention Concordat itself
• produced a range of communications products
• developed a theory of change and associated measures to be used as a means for Public Health England to measure success and support local authorities in improving public mental health.

A dedicated microsite was created for the project to host all of the event information, blogs and videos.

Results

Across the two years more than 1,000 people across the country joined the events, with 93% of attendees saying they would recommend or strongly recommend events of that type to colleagues. The events were praised by attendees as thought provoking, useful and informative. The set of digital events have subsequently been watched more than 900 times.

Participants particularly valued being involved in the design of national policy, as well as the chance to hear from colleagues they’d not had a chance to meet. National guidance was published by Public Health England in 2017 to praise from a wide range of stakeholders.

We’ve greatly enjoyed our long-term relationship with Kaleidoscope, from the very start of the Prevention Concordat right through to seeing its impact in practice. Kaleidoscope’s all round approach, from brilliant events to well-produced webinars, to valuable policy advice, was crucial to the success of the Concordat in improving mental health. We’d gladly work with Kaleidoscope again.

Lily Makurah, National Lead for Public Mental Health, Public Health England