A North East London partnership that brings together lived experience experts, local NHS providers, the Integrated Care Board and local authority and primary care leads has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award.

The North East London Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism (MHLDA) Collaborative is a finalist in the Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards 2024, known as ‘the oscars’ of the NHS.

The collaborative is a space where service users, carers, providers and staff work in equal partnership to improve services for people of all ages with, or at risk of, mental health problems, people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

It is a partnership between East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT), North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) and North East London Integrated Care Board (ICB) and includes service users and carers – lived experience experts – as full members of the Collaborative Committee. This commitment to lived experience leadership and the empowerment of service users and carers to set the priorities for the local system is at the heart of the Collaborative’s way of working. Communities, local authorities, primary care, the voluntary and community sector and other services are also closely involved.

The collaborative supports communities across Barking & Dagenham, City & Hackney, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.

Progress and achievements of the collaborative over the last year include providing 24hr mental health crisis support through NHS 111 (option 2), providing intensive support for people with learning disabilities in their home and improved access to primary care talking therapies. The collaborative has also used quality improvement (QI) methodology at scale to tackle complex health issues across all seven London boroughs in north east London, while bringing clinicians and service users together to make changes needed for the populations we serve. 

It has been named as a finalist in the Provider Collaboration of the Year category of the HSJ Awards. The winners will be announced on 21 November 2024.

Lorraine Sunduza, OBE, Chief Executive of ELFT and Senior Responsible Officer for the North East London Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Autism Collaborative, said: 

"We are delighted to see this recognition for our collaborative. Having lived experience leaders working alongside clinical and care professionals in our collaborative has helped to ensure that the right priorities are set for the system and our services are better tailored to the needs of the people we serve. We believe strongly as a collaborative that this is the only way to address health inequalities effectively, and to improve outcomes, access and experience for north east London residents.”

Dr Mohit Venkataram, Deputy Chief Executive of NELFT, added:

"What we’ve achieved working together in partnership this last year is not only helping improve outcomes for users of service and carers but also change culture and ways of working, reimagining how the NHS is led and run. This recognition is a tribute to our staff who – alongside our experts by experience – are at the forefront of improving care for our residents.”

Rob Hunter, the People Participation Lead for the MHLDA Collaborative, commented:

"I am immensely proud of everybody involved in the collaborative. It has meant that service users, carers and lived experience leaders can be in the room together to have conversations that have an impact on their lives. We are no longer simply having conversations ‘about’ those with lived experiences. Instead, we are talking to each other.”

NHS North East London's Chief Medical Officer, Paul Gilluley, concluded:

"The collaborative has demonstrated the value of learning from others and the importance of working together in partnership across a system to tackle unwarranted variation and improve outcomes. I cannot think of a collaborative more deserving of this shortlisting."