Mental Health Day Opportunities Report - March 2025
Background
Liverpool City Council asked for our input because they were working with the services, and service users, to look at how to make best use of existing resources, for the benefit of current and future service users.
They also wanted to consider whether existing referral routes and facilities could be streamlined whilst preserving a suitable range of support and activities for diverse service users across the city.
The Council were not only interested to hear from existing service users, but also from managers and staff within the services, in order to inform what services could look like in the future.
Liverpool’s Mental Health Day Services are currently provided by five organisations:
- Imagine Independence (Imagine)
- Liverpool Roots Trust (Roots)
- Mary Seacole House (MSH)
- Person Shaped Support (PSS)
- Waythrough (formerly Richmond Fellowship)
Method
We were advised that the Council would be carrying out their own meetings with service users as part of their engagement process. It was therefore decided that the Healthwatch Liverpool engagement would take the form of surveys. This method would allow people to complete the surveys in their own time if they wished – either using paper copies or an online version which they could access with a weblink or QR code.
Alternatively, we offered people the option of asking us to call them on the telephone and go through the survey with them – inputting their answers on their behalf. We also offered anybody the option of having other forms of support to complete the survey – for instance if English was not their first language.
Where possible, we asked service users similar questions to those we asked when carrying out a similar exercise in 2019, so that we could compare answers and see whether service users’ experiences and opinions had changed over the past 5 years.
Once the surveys were finalised each of the 5 services shared them with service users and staff. We included a freepost address for people to return their completed paper surveys directly to
us if they wished.
Key Findings and Recommendations (Service Users)
2019 Findings |
2025 Findings |
|
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
People really value the ability to socialise with other people and the support of caring staff.
|
This remains the case. The importance of socialising with a peer group who share similar experiences and challenges is clear. As is the positive impact of engagement with caring, skilled and knowledgeable staff. |
| 2 |
People appear to enjoy general activities such as art and cookery classes. It is possible that these are more popular than mental-health specific activities, but this needs further investigation.
|
It also remains the case that people rate arts and crafts based, practical skills and exercise-based activities highly. However, these tend to be valued in combination with courses focussing on managing and maintaining mental health. |
| 3 |
People also value having a safe and nonjudgemental space and the services give them an opportunity to get out of the house.
|
Again, this remains true and relates to the importance of socialising with others and opportunities to (re)engage in everyday activities such as getting on a bus and going for a coffee and a chat. |
| 4 |
People feel that the services have enabled them to improve or maintain their mental health.
|
There is clear evidence that not only does this remain the case but in many cases the services have been life-changing or life-saving. |
| 5 | The services also help to build people’s confidence and allow them to develop friendships. |
This remains true. There is also evidence that increased confidence has enabled some service users to become volunteers and provide support to others. Others have reduced or stopped taking medication due to increased wellbeing and/or need to use NHS services less frequently. Improved confidence and new friendships were particularly noted as being important to people who feel marginalised due to e.g. not speaking English as a first language.
|
| 6 |
People would like to see the services extended to include a greater range of activities, longer opening hours and increased funding.
|
There is still a clear wish for more of the existing groups/activities, an expanded ‘menu’ of groups/activities, more funding and more staff to deliver this. |
| 7 |
A majority of people do not access any other activities outside of the services. This is due to anxiety, particularly about meeting new people, and also cost.
|
This also remains the case. In fact, 57.3% of respondents in 2019 didn’t access other services. In 2025 this figure was 57.4%. The main reasons given now are anxiety, meeting new people, accessibility and lack of awareness of other services. |
Key Findings and Recommendations (Managers and Staff)
Unlike our service user survey, we do not have staff feedback from 2019 to compare these findings with. However, they clearly echo the themes raised by service users and, as with service users feedback, they largely apply across all services.
- Staff have seen an increase in demand for their services since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. This has been driven by factors including: lockdown experiences and ongoing impacts of the pandemic, the cost of living crisis, lengthening NHS waiting lists (for physical as well a mental health support), and reductions to statutory services. However, funding levels do not reflect this.
- Whilst staff recruitment and retention is generally good, services have been squeezed, and relatively low salaries in the sector may be deterring good candidates from applying, or tempting existing staff to look for alternative opportunities.
- Staff would like to be able to respond to service user needs more fully but always look for creative ways to make use of resources and try to co-produce solutions with service users wherever possible.
- Staff would like a more constructive and equal relationship with statutory providers; including improved referral routes and efforts to avoid service duplication.
- Improved access to training would be welcomed, including training provided by Liverpool City Council. This is particularly important given the increase in referrals of service users with more complex mental health/trauma-related support needs.
Conclusion and Action Points
The feedback we received from service users of all 5 services was overwhelmingly favourable, with people expressing their support for the services, staff and opportunities provided. Access to services was mostly relatively easy and people told us that they want the ability to access support as often as they require it, for as long as they need it.
People generally felt safe, respected and heard by services, and had frequently formed friendships and community with fellow service users, all of which had increased their confidence and, in some cases, in their own words, saved their lives.
Based on the feedback received, we therefore suggest that there is a need to:
- Seek to maintain funding to this area of work and increase it where possible. The need has been clearly demonstrated, and is likely to increase, based on current demand.
- Improve communications between the 5 service providers involved in delivering these services, and between them and statutory service providers – including Mersey Care’s Life Rooms – to focus on information-sharing, reducing duplication of services, improved referrals and the best possible outcomes for service users. Service user representation and stories should also be central to this process, whether through a regular cross-sector forum or other means.
- Improve the accuracy of referrals by services and commissioners working together to consider options for a ‘One Stop’/’No Wrong Door’ referral route to services, through which self-referrals, and referrals from statutory agencies – including the NHS - or external service providers, can be assessed and forwarded to a suitable Mental Health Day Service provider, or providers, as appropriate. This could also help to re-refer existing service users if their needs or interests change.
- Provide access to a central pool of Support Staff who can assist service users in accessing external services/support and navigating services across the existing mental health day services offer.
- Continue to support the use of shared, accessible, facilities across the city.
- Whilst requiring all services to retain a commitment to supporting a diverse client base, recognise the unique cultural competencies of MSH.
- Support Waythrough to grow its service user base through closer collaboration with the wider time banking sector and encouraging closer collaboration with other local service providers such that service users across all Liverpool mental health day provision have more opportunities to use, swap and share their skills including through the timebank.
- Review any blanket requirements for service users to leave services after set time periods, and deal with service user need on an individual basis – except where people access services to take part in specific time-limited courses. In this case, ensure that they receive tailored signposting and support to access other services if required on completion of the course.
- Consider ways in which training opportunities could be shared across all relevant service providers; whether delivered by the NHS, Liverpool City Council, voluntary sector providers or others. This should include training delivered by the 5 organisations covered by this report, including service users as well as staff.
- Continue to recognise that the voluntary sector services provided by Imagine Independence, Liverpool Roots Trust, Mary Seacole House, Person Shaped Support and Waythrough are more than an ‘add-on’ to statutory services, or a ‘holding’ place for people waiting to access NHS support. They offer a unique opportunity to find support, safety, friendship and tools for dealing with life’s challenges, as well as chances to share skills more widely and to support others.
- Healthwatch Liverpool notes that PSS and MSH are members of and attend our monthly Community Engagement Board (CEB) and would like to extend an invitation to Imagine, Roots, and Waythrough to become CEB members and/or to explore ways in which we can capture the experiences of their service users in relation to the wider health and social care sectors.
Note: These Action Points apply across both reports. Staff and service users expressed very
similar aspirations in their responses. We believe that service user and staff needs, as expressed
in this engagement, are therefore closely linked and should not be separated.
Downloads
If you need this report in a different format, please email enquiries@healthwatchliverpool.co.uk or call 0300 77 77 007.