The national Mental Health Safety Improvement Programme (known as MHSIP) is led by NHS England’s patient safety team. The programme is delivered locally by the West of England Patient Safety Collaborative.
Please visit our events page to find details of local patient safety meetings and webinars.
National programme ambitions
Our local delivery will focus on meeting the ambitions of the MHSIP which aims to nationally reduce restrictive practice (RRP) incidences by 25% in all inpatient mental health, learning disabilities and autism (LDA) wards engaged in the programme by April 2023.
We are aiming to directly support at least 10% of wards in each of our NHS Mental Health LDA Trusts to utilise the RRP change package by testing and implementing interventions.
Our work
RRP in mental health and LDA inpatient services
We are currently ensuring local delivery of MHSIP via work with Avon and Wiltshire Partnership and Gloucestershire Health and Care Foundation Mental Health Trusts.
Colleagues involved in these RRP projects have worked with patients and ‘experts by experience’ to develop and test a range of ‘change ideas’ on their wards. Some examples include:
- Reviewing and reducing or removing unnecessary ‘Blanket Restrictions’
- Introducing daily ‘Coffee Mornings’ for patients and staff to support co-production of activity planning
- Developing new discharge processes for patients with a Learning Disability
- Environmental changes to wards and outside spaces to support ‘meaningful activities’
- Additional Positive Behavioural Support ‘Scenario’ training for staff
- Use ‘Getting to Know’ patient information for staff
Working collaboratively
The Collaborative aims to improve the quality and safety of services for people with mental health conditions through the use of quality improvement methodology. Led by clinical experts with support from the Health Innovation West of England, membership includes Health Innovation Kent, Surrey and Sussex, Health Innovation Oxford, Health Innovation South West, Health Innovation Wessex and 16 mental health trusts across the South of England. The Collaborative acts as the regional delivery vehicle for the Mental Health Safety Improvement Programme, which is commissioned by NHS England and delivered by each of England’s 15 Health Innovation Networks. At present its focus is on reducing restrictive practice in mental health, learning disability and autism units.
You can find out more about joining The Collaborative, or its work, by visiting their website or contacting us.
You can also follow The Collaborative on Twitter or search the hashtag #TheCollabQI.
Supporting equity for people with a learning disability
Through the NHS South West-commissioned South West Learning Disabilities Collaborative (which we host), we are working to support equity of care and life expectancy for people with learning disabilities. Read more about the South West Learning Disabilities Collaborative.
Find out more
For more information on our MHSIP projects and events, please contact our patient safety team.
Read more about all of our work related to mental health, including the two national AHSN Network programmes: Early Intervention Eating Disorders and Focus ADHD.
You can also stay up to date with all our news and events by signing-up to receive a monthly West of England newsletter.
