Mental Health Network
A powerful national advocate for mental health, pressing for mental health to receive the priority it deserves from government and national bodies.
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Exclusively for providers of NHS-funded mental health care, we help shape and challenge national policy and legislation affecting our members.
We make sense of the broader political and policy environment, and provide members with up-to-date news and analysis. We also work to identify and spread good practice and innovation in the mental health sector.
Why join?
Membership unlocks access to opportunities to ensure members’ voices are at the heart of national decision-making, meeting with politicians, policymakers and opinion-formers to influence change.
Our events provide spaces for members to hear from key influencers and network with peers. They unite mental health service providers, national bodies, political parties and cutting-edge researchers.
We dissect the big issues and keep our members up to date with the latest knowledge and thinking affecting the sector.
This is in addition to:
- exclusive insights, resources and digital communities designed to help navigate complexity
- opportunities for direct engagement with government, parliament and national bodies.
Forums to connect, share and learn
Forums exclusively for mental health providers
- Mental Health Trust Chairs Forum: chairs of mental health trusts and foundation trusts; meets fortnightly.
- Mental Health Medical Directors Forum: medical directors of mental health trusts and foundation trusts; meets monthly.
- Third Sector Group: third sector leaders.
- Learning Disabilities Forum: members that provide or commission services for people with a learning disability; meets quarterly.
- Housing Forum: members with an interest in housing services; meets quarterly.
- Independent Sector Providers Forum: mental health independent sector providers of inpatient services; meets monthly.
Forums exclusively for NHS trusts and foundation trusts
- NHS Leaders Forum: chairs and chief executives from NHS trusts and foundation trusts; meets twice a year.
- Shared Leadership Forum for Chairs: chairs of acute, community, mental health and ambulance trusts in (or considering) shared leadership arrangements; meets quarterly.
- Company Secretaries Forum: for company/trust secretaries and directors of corporate affairs.
- NHS Chief Finance Officers and Commercial Leads Forum: for chief finance officers, directors of finance, and Commercial and business development leads.
- NHS Chief Operating Officers Forum: For chief operating officers, directors of operations and site operational directors.
Forums available to all members of The NHS Alliance
- NHS Leaders Forum (successor to NHS Providers’ Chairs and Chief Executives Network): chairs and chief executives from across NHS trusts, ICBs, community CICs and primary care collaboratives. Meets twice yearly with all system leaders invited. Meets twice yearly in sector-specific groups – e.g. NHS trust chairs and chief executives only.
- NHS Non-Executive Directors Forum: Non-executive directors from across NHS trusts and ICBs.
- NHS Workforce Leaders Forum: directors of HR, workforce and organisational development.
- NHS Digital Innovation Leaders Forum: digital and innovation leaders at board level across trusts and ICBs; digital primary care senior leaders; board-level non-statutory members providing NHS funded patient care. Meets quarterly.
- NHS Communications Forum: directors of communications and engagement across trusts, ICBs and other parts of the system; other senior communications leads. Meets quarterly.
- NHS Quality and Safety Forum: series of webinars for board level leaders on key issues relating to quality and safety.
- NHS Work and Health Forum: broad ICB membership including ICB work and health leads, strategy and workforce leads and chairs. Non-ICB membership includes NHS trusts, local/strategic authorities, DWP, VCSE and national colleagues Currently monthly.
- Neighbourhood Leads Forum: primary care, acute, community, mental health and ICB neighbourhood health leads who are responsible for making neighbourhood working a reality at place and system.
- Outpatient Reform Forum: NHS trusts, community trusts, primary care and neighbourhood ICB; anyone involved with outpatient pathway redesign. Meets quarterly.
- EDI Directors Forum: directors, associate directors and high-level strategic leads for EDI or health inequalities within NHS organisations
- NHS BME Leadership Network: black and minority ethnic leaders, aspiring leaders and allies from across the NHS. We convene network members through our three annual in-person events: our anti-racism conference in April, network lunch at NHS ConfedExpo in June and our Black History Month event in October.
- NHS LGBTQ+ Leadership Network: LGBTQ+ leaders, aspiring leaders and allies from across the NHS. We convene members every quarter via virtual meetings and annually for our in-person networking session at NHS ConfedExpo.
- NHS Women Leaders Network: women working at all levels across health and care. We convene members several times a year via mix of in-person and virtual events including our quarterly fireside chats, annual conference and International Women’s Day celebrations.
- NHS Disability Leadership Network: new network.
Our priorities for 2026/27
- Being a strong, unified, voice on the need for mental health to be a greater focus in decisions about funding, reform and political focus.
- Ensuring member priorities inform developments such as the prevalence review, modern service frameworks, and the CQC assessment framework.
- Supporting members around longer term developments, such as contributing to what strategic commissioning in mental health may look like, and how to make the interface of primary and secondary mental health care work more effectively.
- Through our collaboration with the Mental Health Policy Group, we will meet directly with key figures to bring your challenges and concerns, as well as your innovations and improvements, to the highest levels of decision making