Transforming our care and environments
Be er Communities
We are reducing stigma around mental health to create inclusive services that aim to be actively anti-racist
Change is a constant in our health system.
We have to adapt to make sure we continue to be at the forefront of providing high-quality care to the communities we serve. In South West London, we are investing in our future as we go through an exciting period of change.
Our Better Communities Programme aims to transform our care and environments over the next four years through significant investment in our services, our teams and our buildings.
We want to deliver the best possible clinical services, that help people with mental health conditions live well and stay well in the community – the right care, at the right time, in the right place.
When people do need to come into hospital, we are transforming our environments to create modern healthcare facilities that will serve residents across Wandsworth, Richmond, Kingston, Sutton and Merton for generations to come.
We are reducing stigma around mental health to create inclusive services that aim to be actively anti-racist. We are determined to address entrenched health inequalities and ensure service users experience fairness and equality of access, treatment and outcomes.
Together we are Making Life Better for our communities
About South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust
We are innovative and have been at the forefront of mental health transformation for a number of years
Our Trust serves 1.2m people across the boroughs of Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton, and Wandsworth. We support one of the most diverse populations in London and this is reflected in our workforce of over 2,500 staff.
We are committed to addressing entrenched health inequalities and becoming actively antiracist. We are innovative and have been at the forefront of mental health transformation for a number of years. This is driven forward through our Better Communities Programme, which is made up of the Better Care Programme and the Better Environments Programme.
We are committed to engagement and coproduction and aspire to work hand-in-hand with our communities, our patients and their carers in everything we do. We have four strategic ambitions which guide our work:
• Increasing quality years
Across our 120 clinical teams we provide care to 20,000 people in South West London at any given time. Our services are delivered across:
• Acute and Urgent Care Services
• Community Services (for adults largely of working age)
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and all age Eating Disorders Services
• And a Specialist Service Line which includes Forensics, Deaf Services, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), Neuropsychiatry, Cognition and Mental Health in Aging and Neurodevelopmental services.
• Reducing inequalities
• Making the Trust a great place to work
• Ensuring sustainability
Our ambitions underpin our Trust mission, ‘Making Life Better Together’ - the golden thread that runs through our work to transform local mental health services.
Be er Care
Effective treatment and a be er experience, wherever you access our services
In South West London we are seeing more and more people who need urgent and acute mental health care, as well as higher demand for community and specialist mental health services, with more people accessing our services in crisis or with more serious illnesses.
In line with the NHS Long Term Plan and the NHS Community Mental Health Framework, the Better Care Programme is focused on transforming local mental health services to support people to get help early, recover, and stay well in the community, closer to their friends and families.
We want to ensure there is no wrong door into our services and we want our patients to only have to tell their story once.
Across our community services, children and young people’s services, inpatient wards and specialist services, we are transforming care to support more people to access the right care, at the right time, in the right place and ensure noone stays in hospital longer than they need to.
Co-production, co-design and collaboration are central to this. In the coming years we will continue to progress innovations that deliver better care across our clinical services, working hand-in-hand with patients, services users, the voluntary and community sector and other partners.
Be er community care
Helping more people to live well and stay well in their community, closer to their friends and family
For those adults who have a more serious mental illness, and are working with local charities, voluntary organisations andpartners to offer a wider range of care, advice and support earlier on. We want to help more people to live well and stay well in their community, closer to their friends and family.
Support is built around our patients, and could include a range of:
• Therapies and treatment
• Emotional and practical support from peer support workers who have lived experience of mental health difficulties
• Health and wellbeing support for housing, employment, finances and social welfare
• Help with medications
• Support to maintain good physical health
• Advice for carers
All offered in the community, closer to the people we serve.
As well as bringingphysical, mental and social support services together, we have made things simpler to access and have recruited nearly 200 new clinical and non-clinical roles. :
• Easier access to a wider range of support, when you need it, in places that are more convenient for you, like GP surgeries
• Reduced waiting times for assessment, treatment and support
• More people staying well for longer and fewer people experiencing a mental health crisis
• Improved experience for people who use our services, and their carers
Scan the QR code for an animated guide to your transformed community mental health services
Rolling out transformed communityser vices
Ensuring mental health services meet the needs of local people
The ‘Sutton Uplift Mental Health and Wellbeing Service’ launched in January 2022. It was developed through co-design and collaboration with patients, carers and partners to ensure our transformed mental health services better meet the needs of our local people.
The service now provides a single point of access for people with mental ill health and their carers, friends and family to support their health and wellbeing. This means there is no wrong door into our services.
The service works with partner organisations to provide person-centred help and support. This means developing a personal recovery plan based on individual needs and giving choice and control over the way care is planned and delivered. There are a number of different organisations and services that support service users’ wellbeing.
The support available can be accessed via two recovery hubs and includes: specialist mental health assessments, peer support, carers support, wellbeing and self-care advice, employment support, support with medicines, physical health checks, housing, social welfare and financial advice.
Scan the QR code to find out more about the Better Care Programme
Transformed care in Sutton
Be er acute and urgent care
Suppo rtin g our p a tients to a void cri sis with timely, pur po se ful a n d least res tr i ctive care which focu ses on recovery A
Be er specialist care
Building be er pathways back into the community for patients with complex mental health needs
The specialist care we provide includes a wide range of services for people with severe mental health issues and additional needs due to old age, neurodevelopmental disorders, deafness, and other conditions requiring more specialist treatments.
Better Care is transforming key areas of these services to build better pathways back into the community for patients with complex mental health needs, supporting people to recover closer to their support networks.
Improvements focus in particular on improving equity of access to community services for older adults, building stronger links with existing adult services, and improving and creating new care pathways in the community for people with intellectual disabilities, ADHD and Autism.
We will also build on successful transformations across Rehabilitation and Eating Disorder Services to support people with severe mental health issues to recover. This will empower more people with severe and complex mental health issues to live independently and thrive.
Be er care for children and young people
Transforming
children and
young people’s services to provide a be er experience for children and their loved ones
Long waiting times, complex care pathways and the involvement of difference agencies can make Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) challenging to navigate.
Through Better Care’s CAMHS transformation programme and wider service developments we are making improvements to ensure timely access and better care for young people and their families.
We want to ensure transparency from the outset so that the young people in our care know what they can expect from us. At the same time, we continue to focus on improving partnerships with schools, local GPs and adult services for those turning 18, ensuring that our services are joined-up with primary care, and primary and secondary education.
Be er Environments
Be er Environments is investing over £250m to develop modern mental health facilities that provide healing spaces for recovery and care
Our Better Environments Programme is developing a bold new landscape for local mental health services that opens up our hospital sites to the community, breaks down mental health stigma, and brings our services closer to the people we serve.
We have a proud history of providing innovative mental health care across South West London. However, our aging estate has brought a number of challenges. Until recently, we provided mental health services from Springfield Hospital which was constructed in 1840 as one of the first county asylums, while mental health services have been provided at Tolworth Hospital for decades.
Through the sale of surplus land, not required for mental health care, and with some additional funding, we are investing over £250m to develop new facilities across South West London in line with local consultations.
This innovative programme is reimagining a new social landscape for our sites across South West London to transform the relationships we have with our local communities for the better. We are working hand-in-hand with our patients, carers, services users and the wider community to develop new facilities across Wandsworth, Richmond and Kingston. In all, this is supporting up to £1bn of investment in South West London across healthcare and urban development - boosting our local economy and delivering social, commercial and wellbeing benefits for our communities.
The designs of our new facilities and the wider developments are informed by hundreds of meetings, seminars and workshops with our communities, patients, their carers, nurses, doctors and other clinical experts.
Together with our partners, Better Environments is delivering:
•Springfield Village, a new stigma-breaking community at the heart of Wandsworth with new mental health facilities, hundreds of new homes and a brand new 32-acre park – with new areas opening up to 2027
•A refurbished facility, Richmond Royal Health Centre, at the site of the former Richmond Royal Hospital –
•A brand-new outpatient facility alongside a new school at Barnes Hospital in Richmond–6
•And five new wards atTolworth Hospital in Kingston – delivered in 2027
Ground-breaking facilities at Springfield University Hospital
Co-designed with patients, carers and service users, space, light and nature have been guiding principles in the buildings’ development
At the heart of Springfield University Hospital are our new cutting-edge Trinity and Shaftesbury hospital buildings.
Together, the two new buildings represent a £150m investment and are the culmination of years of hard work from our teams, communities and partners in South West London. The facilities have been designed to provide high quality inpatient services that deliver modern mental health care, giving people the best chance to recover in the best environment, and supporting our staff to deliver the outstanding care our service users deserve from us.
Construction began in January 2020 and continued throughout the pandemic. Trinity, which opened on time and in budget in December 2022, is home to over 30 teams (including over 500 staff), and provides care to patients in two acute wards, two specialist wards (including our national Deaf services ward), and adult community and children and young people’s outpatient facilities. Since opening, Trinity has received national and international acclaim.
The Shaftesbury building followed, opening in October 2023. The facility is home to a range of specialist forensic wards. The building also provides parking facilities, a gym and a restaurant for the wider hospital site.
Co-designed with patients, carers and service users, space, light and nature have been guiding principles in the buildings’ development. They include spacious ensuite bedrooms, world-class artworks and garden courtyards, providing places for rest and reflection.
Creative spaces for healing
120 a workshops with patients, carers and staff, inspired incredible conversations, collaborations and a works
As part of the innovative design, Springfield’s new facilities feature 20 world-class artworks created in partnership with arts and mental health charity Hospital Rooms – the first time an art project of this scale has been undertaken in the NHS.
Taking place over three years, Hospital Rooms led 120 art workshops with patients, carers and staff, which inspired incredible conversations, collaborations and artwork proposals. From this, artists co-designed 20 pieces of vibrant and uplifting artwork that have helped to shape a new creative landscape for mental health care in South West London.
You can find these artworks in the shared spaces throughout the buildings and on our wards. From large scale vinyl installations and detailed painted murals to sound and moving-image based pieces, these works are ambitious, thought provoking and fundamentally re-imagine the role of creativity in mental health environments.
Stigma-breaking Springfield Village
Springfield University Hospital in Wandswo h is now pa of a new stigmabreaking community called Springfield Village
For too long, large parts of the NHS mental health estate have been isolated from the communities they serve, reflecting outdated, stigma-laden attitudes to mental ill health from years gone by.
Springfield University Hospital in Wandsworth is changing and is becoming part of a new stigmabreaking community called Springfield Village.
The new Trinity and Shaftesbury buildings sit in Chapel Square, at the heart of Springfield Village. This square is gradually welcoming new shops and cafes including a new restaurant and a gym, all surrounded by over 800 new homes.
Alongside this, a new 32-acre park began to open from summer 2023. This will feature a pavilion café, an amphitheatre, youth shelter, play areas, sensory garden, trim trail and much more.
By 2027 this will see Springfield transformed into a vibrant new community with mental health at its heart.
Springfield Village will eventually include:
• Two state-of-the-art mental health buildings, Trinity and Shaftesbury – delivering best-inclass facilities
• A 32-acre public park in Tooting – providing excellent outdoor space for our community
• Shops and cafés – amenities for everyone to use
• Hundreds of new homes, including affordable homes – providing homes for the borough of Wandsworth
• A new care home – supporting the wider community
• And investment in local transport facilities –boosting transport links for residents
Health and education for the community at Barnes
Our Barnes Hospital site is changing to become a new mixed-used community made up of healthcare, housing and education, bringing our services closer to the community.
We are investing £11m to develop a new healthcare facility which will sit alongside a new Social and Emotional Mental Health (SEMH) school, developed by LocatED, an arms-length body of the Department for Education.
We have been working with patients, carers, staff and our wider communityon the development and design of our new facility for a number of years with works beginning in spring 2024 for delivery in 2026
We will continue to work with communities, patients and carers on the development of the facilities and will work closely with our neighbours throughout the build phase to support a smooth construction programme.
During the development there will be no disruption to local services. All our teams previously at Barnes have now relocated to temporary accommodation at Livingston House in Teddington for the duration of the construction phase.
Richmond Royal Health Centre
Our Be er Environments programme in Richmond will deliver state-of-the-a outpatient facilities for the whole community
The Trust has been working to refurbish its facility at the former site of Richmond Royal Hospital, part of which is being converted into residential housing. Our facility here will become a new ‘Richmond Royal Health Centre’ and will provide a hub for local outpatient services for children and young people.
Richmond Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) have been based at Barnes Hospital, and now Livingston House, during this time.
Securing the future of Tolwo h Hospital
The redevelopment of Tolwo h Hospital represents the final stage of our ambitious programme
to transform mental health services in South West London
Following careful consultation with service users, carers and staff over a number of years, our plans to redevelop Tolworth will mean that it will eventually stand as a centre of excellence for inpatient care alongside Springfield.
We will be investing £110m, self-funded from the sales of our surplus estate at Springfield, to develop a new five-ward facility at Tolworth that will improve patient outcomes and experience. This will also see the creation of a central plaza, café and new access routes, breaking stigma and opening the site up to the community.
Transforming Tolworth will allow us to centralise wards from older accommodation across South West London, bringing together patients, their families and our teams to create a sustainable mental health community, for now, and in the future.
The investment in Tolworth will also enhance our role in the local community, supporting local businesses and the economy, developing our contribution as a local employer and our role as an anchor institution, creating a community with mental health at its heart and breaking down barriers to reduce mental health stigma.
Removal of old and unused buildings at the centre of the site moved forward in spring 2024. Construction works are due to begin pending funding and final government approval.
Tolworth is currently due for completion in 2027. This will bring the Better Environments Programme to a conclusion, delivering two state-of-the-art inpatient centres serving the whole of South West London from Wandsworth and Kingston, alongside new and refurbished outpatient facilities in Wandsworth and Richmond.
Anchor and environmental sustainability
We are investing to create be er communities, reduce stigma, break down barriers and be actively anti-racist
At South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust we are committed to our role as an anchor institution in South West London.
Through our role as an anchor institution, we have an opportunity to manage our land and buildings in a way that has a positive social, economic and environmental impact. The effects of good management can improve the health and wellbeing of our communities and reduce health inequalities.
We are a London Living Wage employer and we are increasing awareness of NHS career paths within our local communities and building our future workforce. As a procurer of services, we are shifting more spend locally and embedding social and environmental value into our purchasing.
By building stronger relationships in our communities we are sharing good practice, raising mental health awareness, breaking down stigma and widening access. And through our Better Communities Programme we are making multimillion-pound investments to transform our services for generations to come.
We are also founders of the ground-breaking South London Listens initiative – a prevention programme co-produced with our communities. Through the programme we are proud to have set up multiple mental health ‘Be Well’ hubs across our boroughs, accredited as a London Living Wage employer and worked with young people to create a virtual ‘CAMHS Waiting Room’ providing clear information on waiting times – all while striving to improve the resources available to patients while they are waiting.
Environmental sustainability
We are committed to ensuring our new buildings are carbon neutral, using the latest efficiency measures.
As a leader for environmental sustainability, this means committing to our challenge to be net zero by 2030 and working with staff at an individual level to make environmentally friendly efficiencies, reflected in our Green Plan.
Thank you to our communities
Together we are Making Life Be er Together
We look forward to continuing to work with all our stakeholders as we progress on this impo ant journey to transform local mental health services, reduce stigma, provide the best possible quality care, reduce health inequalities and become actively anti-racist
Whether it’s symptoms of anxiety or depression, experiencing a mental health crisis, or managing a chronic mental health issue, we know how important it is to have high quality mental health services available at the point of need.
Change and transformation is central to making sure the NHS can continue to deliver the best care for our communities. We want to thank all of our partners, patients, carers, colleagues and stakeholders who have helped us to achieve so much already through this work. Our patients and service users in particular have been key to ensuring these vital programmes understand and respond to the evolving needs of the people we serve.
Overall, our Better Communities Programme is a key part of delivering our Trust mission, Making Life Better Together. At its heart, this is about improving the lives of everyone who works and comes into contact with our services and delivering care that makes a difference every day to thousands of people across South West London.
