Impact Report
2023/2024
Who is Living Well UK?
Living Well UK ( LWUK), is a mental health charity dedicated to improving the health, social care,
and well-being of local people, primarily in the West Midlands, by providing high-quality
services.
LWUK largely depends on its trading subsidiary, Living Well Consortium (LWC), for the majority
of its operations. Through LWC, LWUK has employed central staff who work on clinical activities
and oversight, as well as data management and administration. Additionally, a core team is in
place to handle finance, human resources, marketing, and other essential functions.
Martin Hogg
CEO of Citizen Coaching CIC, Chair of Living Well Consortium
Louise McKiernan
CEO Disability resource centre (DRC) Chair of Living Well UK
The role of the Consortium
The LWC made up of over 40 specialist third-sector organisations working broadly in the field of
mental health. Working this way allows for improved partnerships between organisations and
the flexibility to offer a wide variety of services. LWC supports member organisations by building
their capacity, providing new contracting opportunities, promoting joint working, and
encouraging learning and development.
LWC’S Impact
LWC generates income from government contracts to provide counselling and psychological therapy services as part of the national NHS Talking Therapies program. LWC collaborates with its members to deliver this service, including applying for funding and support, providing training, and fundraising assistance. LWC is a leading delivery partner in the West Midlands and one of the key partners for the Birmingham and Solihull NHS Talking Therapies programme.
LWC treated 14,111 people
We saw people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, as seen by the breakdown below
- Declined to answer 21%
- Mixed Race 6%
- Other Ethnic Group 8%
- Black or Black British 9%
- Asian or Asian British 19%
- White or White British 37%
Appointment breakdown
9189 clients
Accessibility
The service aims to make psychological therapies widely accessible to individuals who need them.
Skilled Practitioners
Therapy is delivered by trained NHS Talking Therapy professionals.
Structured Programs
Treatments are typically delivered through structured programmes, which can include individual or group therapy.
Confidentiality
All services provided under NHS Talking Therapy maintain strict confidentiality standards to protect the privacy of individuals seeking help.
Range of Therapies
The service provides a variety of therapeutic approaches, ensuring that there is something suitable for everyone.
Case Study
Angel is in late middle age and has serious long term health conditions. He is a survivor of 2 life-threatening conditions and has had major surgery twice in the last 2 years. He had also suffered a recent breakdown of a long-term relationship. He was using illegal drugs to manage his physical and mental pain.
Angel was struggling with his health, with little physical support. He was experiencing enormous feelings of loss around his health and his family. He had to come to terms with changes to his physical self, realisation that he was no longer young, and that death was closer than he realised, all whilst at the same time as mourning the end of his marriage and deterioration of his relationships with his family. His mood was low, and he had attempted to end his life twice not long before he came to Living Well. He had frequent thoughts that his life was not worth living and said he even looked forward to it ending.
Angel sought support from Living Well Consortium and was offered an NHS Talking Therapy service, in this case, counselling for depression. Through this intervention Angel was able to examine the difficulties he was facing in an empathetic and non-judgmental way.
Over 12 sessions, Angel began to recognise and voice his grief over his losses and come to terms with how the changes to his life were affecting him. He was able to accept what had happened to him and let go of his anger, fear and resentment and begin to address his grief.
This enabled him to manage his physical symptoms better, have some optimism about the future and plan how he could make the most of whatever time remains to him. When the therapy ended, Angel had no thoughts of self-harm, and his self-report was that he felt good and positive. He had managed to stop using illegal drugs and was living each day as it comes.
Counselling for Children and Young People
aged 11 – 25 years
in partnership with
We aim to provide high-quality treatment to children and young people aged 11-25. This is delivered by staff who are specifically trained to support this age group.
The service provides CYP who are experiencing emotional distress and/or mental health difficulties easy access to a variety of treatments, such as those below.Long Term Health Conditions
The Long Term Health Conditions (LTHC) service within the NHS Talking Therapies service is designed to provide psychological support to individuals who are dealing with chronic physical health conditions alongside mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. This service recognises the interconnectedness of physical and mental health and aims to improve overall wellbeing by addressing both.
Key aspects of the LTHC service are:
The service integrates mental health support with physical health care. It involves close collaboration with other healthcare providers, such as General Practitioners (GPs), Specialist Doctors, and other medical professionals to ensure a holistic approach to patient care.
The LTHC service offers psychological therapies specifically tailored to the needs of individuals with long-term physical health conditions. These therapies can help manage symptoms of anxiety and depression that often accompany chronic illnesses.
The service supports individuals with a variety of long term health conditions, such as Diabetes, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Cardiovascular Diseases, Chronic Pain, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
The LTHC service aims to be easily accessible and offer flexibility to clients. We offer appointments in a variety of formats including face-to-face, telephone or video consultations, as well as Computerised CBT using Silvercloud.
The goal of this service is to enhance the overall quality of life for individuals by addressing both the psychological and physical aspects of their health. This dual focus can lead to better health outcomes and improved wellbeing.
Educating patients about the connection between mental and physical health and providing them with the tools and knowledge to manage both, is a key component of the service.
Employment Support at LWC
Sophie Yardley, Senior Employment Advisor for LWC
Walking Therapies
Case study
I had tried to take my own life several times, I was addicted to cocaine and alcohol and had poor mental health.
I was sectioned at The Oleaster and received therapy and medication. My GP recommended me to Living Well Consortium after my other treatment ended. I continue to use medication and attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings. I celebrated 2 years clean to date.
My whole world has turned upside down. I have a new and better job, more money, savings, a new house and a wonderful girlfriend, a cat, a dog, good family and friends, better health, less weight, better means to support my mental health. None of this would have been a reality if it wasn’t for the support I had from *Simon at Living Well Consortium.
It was amazing. I really enjoyed the walking therapy with Simon. I enjoy walking and being around water, we used Cannon Hill and I found the whole service very helpful and an eye opener. I still use the things I learnt today. Simon put me on a new path, and I have blossomed since.
*David age 33 from Birmingham
* Names have been changed to protect people’s identities.
* Simon is part of the clinical team at Living Well Consortium
iaptus
In 2023, LWC invested in iaptus – the leading electronic patient record tool for psychological therapy. This investment has lead to significant changes and improvements throughout the service.
As one of the leading providers for NHS Talking Therapies in Birmingham and Solihull, LWC reached a pivotal point in its growth that required us to level up our IT infrastructure. By bringing in iaptus, which is recognised nationally in the NHS sector as the leading clinical software for psychological therapies, we hoped to improve our data quality, consistency and processes.
LWC tailored the system to suit the needs of our service providers to ensure the platform was harmonised to our particular style of joint working. This involved careful customisation of everything from care pathways and digital referral routes to data gathering and information governance.
A year in to using this data system, feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Reporting standards have been raised, allowing KPIs to be tracked more accurately and shared with the NHS. More information is able to be inputted on the system ensuring a more detailed client profile and the system is much more intuitive for staff to use.
Limbic Access
Service users can now refer themselves to Living Well Consortium through Limbic on our website, either using the chat that opens automatically or by clicking a link to a full-page form.
Limbic is an interactive referral process and takes an average of 15 minutes to complete. It is split into 3 sections – suitability, clinical information and questionnaires. LWC’s aim is to make the self-referral process simpler for our users and ensure they are processed in a timely manner.
In the first 6 months, Limbic Access has had a significant impact. Limbic clients provide more information, with less than 2% of clients declining to provide key demographic information compared to 35% service wide. From this data, we can see that Limbic Access has made the service more accessible for those with disabilities (24% of referrals) and LTHC’s (47% of referrals) – almost double the percentage of other referral types.
Initial data also suggests that clients who self-refer via Limbic Access are 13% more likely to complete their treatment.
The information gathered over the first 6 months of going live is really promising and we are excited to continue our work on digital innovation going into the next year.
Limbic Care app is coming soon
Enhancing LWC’s use of AI functionality for users for the ease of self-referrals
and giving them the empowering tool to manage their self-care via this platform.
LWC’s Clinical Workforce
LWC’s workforce consists of 120 NHS Talking Therapies qualified staff from a variety of modalities, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Counselling from Depression, Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), Couples Therapy and EMDR.
According to the 2024 national workforce census, LWC’s workforce was significantly more diverse than the NHS average. This has always been a priority for us as it is important to reflect the community we serve.
LWC’s traineeship pathways are open to both Consortium members and external candidates through an open advertising process. Successful applicants gain university places via a rigorous recruitment process hosted by the university and LWC. They are then placed within our 12 Providers using specific criteria including an assessment of their clinical structures.
LWC continues to deliver high-quality interventions for the NHS Talking Therapy service following National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines. The waiting time is well within the national standard of 6 weeks, and LWC’s recovery rates are currently meeting the average expectation. This is due to the hard work of our incredible staff.
Building an Inclusive Service
LWC is committed to making our services available to everyone. Below are examples of the ways we have championed diversity, inclusivity and accessibility within our services.
As well as being referred by external agencies, clients can self-refer into our services online, over the phone and in person at our grounded. hubs. Our online referral system is open 24/7, ensuring someone can refer no matter the time of day.
When a client is receiving treatment, we do everything we can to make the service accessible to them by offering a wide variety of support such as accessible therapy rooms, virtual and telephone sessions, interpreters and resources in alternative formats.
Our therapists have received Cultural Competence training to ensure they understand and respect the diverse cultural backgrounds of clients.
We have providers specialising in specific areas such as African, Christian and Islamic centred therapies. We also have specialists in the Deaf and LGBTQ+ communities.
When possible, we endeavour to match clients with therapists that speak their primary language. When this isn’t possible, we use an interpreter service to allow easy communication between therapist and client.
One of our key goals is to reduce stigma surrounding accessing mental health support. This year, we have worked on increasing our presence around Birmingham and Solihull and encouraging people from all walks of life to access support. Examples of this work includes Pride, our grounded. hubs, partnerships with sporting teams and clubs, a pop up in the Bullring with Birmingham Mind and partnerships with hospitals.
Additionally, we have worked with community leaders and organisations to build trust and ensure that our services are designed and delivered in a way that is responsive to the needs of the communities we serve.
We have also kept all of our services entirely free at the point of delivery, removing the financial barriers to accessing therapy.
Partnership Work
Working with the Aston Villa Foundation
We match-funded a Wellbeing Practitioner with the Aston Villa Foundation. They delivered wellbeing support sessions to under 18s, both on a 1-to-1 basis and via group sessions in schools and at the Aston Villa Football Club.
Those who wanted to could get involved with Villa Kicks and Youth Groups at Villa for additional support. This programme will continue to develop into the next year.
HSJ Awards
grounded. Selly Oak was a finalist for the prestigious Health Service Journal (HSJ) Award for the Best Mental Health Partnership, relating to the partnership with Birmingham Mind and NHS England. Having the value and impact of grounded. recognised at a national level within its first year is a huge achievement which we’re extremely proud of.
2023 saw the opening of grounded. – an innovative project created in response to mental health data, funded by NHS England.
grounded. Hall Green is situated in an area with some of the lowest numbers of people seeking mental health support in the region.
The hub was opened with the aim of contributing to the gradual increase in the number of people seeking support by providing the local community with a safe, comfortable and culturally accessible space to start a dialogue around improving their wellbeing.
The local area hosts a predominantly South Asian, family focused community – made up of 54% Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh people, and 60% single family households.
The team at the grounded. Hall Green is designed to represent the diverse surrounding communities. This ensures service users can feel comfortable in entering this therapeutic space to access support from an inclusive team that understand their needs.
The team is made up of LWC’s Provider Cognitive Wellness – who are a start-up organisation with many years of NHS Talking Therapies and clinical operations experience behind them. In addition, they offer a holistic wellbeing programme of workshops which is tailored to the local community, with Urdu, Farsi and Arabic speaking therapists.
Since opening, grounded. Hall Green Talking Therapy referrals exceeded expectations, with 25 referrals from within the local community in the first month alone.
households
grounded. Selly Oak is a wellbeing café located in the heavily student populated area, Selly Oak. It was created in response to rising numbers of students presenting at A&E in mental health crisis. The goal of the space is to offer prevention and intervention.
Alongside ethical and delicious coffee served by social enterprise Evolve, grounded. Selly Oak offers a programme of wellbeing workshops and an on-site therapist to take walk-in self-referrals. 3 nights per week, Birmingham Mind run a crisis drop-in service called ‘Talking Spaces.’
Since opening in July 2023, grounded. Selly Oak has been a roaring success, with over a thousand people attending workshops, 150 attending Talking Spaces, and almost a hundred referring into NHS Talking Therapies – with almost 7000 visitors to the space overall.
The grounded. team have worked with compassion, creativity, innovation and energy to achieve all of this, which is reflected in the excellent visitor feedback, and we look forward to developing grounded. Selly Oak far into the future.
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Birmingham Pride
In May 2023, the Living Well team spent a sunny weekend at Birmingham Pride – a magnificent event in the City promoting acceptance, safety and above all, love. It was our second year in attendance, with each year involving a free creative activity such as bracelet making or rock painting. The rocks are currently in the grounded. Selly Oak garden, displaying colorful and encouraging messages and illustrations focused around self care, self acceptance and love. These activities, have proven effective vehicles for dialogue with the participant, opening up conversations around mental health. As well as the creative activity, we have useful takeaway cards and wristbands with the mental health support line number.
Being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community presents its own mental health and wellbeing issues derived from discrimination and lack of support, services and acceptance. With this in mind its crucial to us that we have a presence each year to ensure visitors see, feel and understand the support available to them through LWC – and that it is a safe and inclusive service.
LWC looks forward to returning to Birmingham Pride 2024.
LWUK Grants and Programmes
During the last financial year, a range of projects were delivered by the Grants & Programmes Team.
This year, Living Well UK were awarded grants totalling
Bring it on Brum, nationally known as HAF (Holiday, Activities & Food) aims to address the gap of holiday provision for children and young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and in receipt of Free School Meals. This service allows them to access enrichment provision and healthy food provision during holiday times to have fun filled and healthy school holidays.
We supported 137 young people, aged 4 to 14, over the Summer, Christmas and Easter holidays. A large variety of activities were offered, including sports, creative arts, yoga and making healthy puddings.
The Tennis is Served programme was funded by LTA Tennis and aimed to improve the physical and mental wellbeing for those who took part.
We provided tennis sessions, alongside Matt Hillman Tennis coaches, for young people aged 5 – 18 living in temporary accommodation. The first 5 months of this project supported 62 young people and it will continue into next year.
Sport England part-funded our Sandwell Valley Multisport Programme, which was born out of the success of the Dosthill Open Water Swimming Programme Living Well offered in 2021.
Weekly sessions were offered to young people consisting of open water swimming alongside physical activities sessions ran by Impact 4 Life and Front Foot Fitness.
The project supported 27 young people in improving their physical, mental, and overall health.
As part of funding secured from Children in Need, we partnered with Urban Heard to run a youth ambassador programme coined ‘YOLO’, an acronym for ‘Youth Of Living-Well Opportunities’, by the 14 – 17 year olds taking part.
During the project, young people attended weekly sessions in which they developed a range of skills such as leadership, communication, goal setting and problem solving. They also took part in several campaigns and created a Youth Charter while unwinding from the daily school stress and building new friendships.
The end of the project culminated in the young people being invited to a lunch at Living Well Consortium offices where they presented a video highlighting their work to a member of Executive Team.
On participant said – “The session has allowed me to speak up more and think more critically. Interacting as a group and being proactive has increased my confidence and communication skills. It is interesting how there are different sessions and topics to focus on. The sessions with LWC have made me realise that even though I am young, my voice is important and there are ways that I can make myself heard.“
Healing Circles
Healing Circle Therapy
LWC provided the Healing Circle therapies service to users from Black, African, and Caribbean heritage and this service was accessed by over more 500 people.
Listening Services
This service is designed to offer a listening ear and guidance for wellbeing, without clinical intervention.
LWC worked closely with Karis Neighbour Scheme and Bethel Health & Healing Network to offer Listening Services to over 600 clients.
Karis Neighbourhood Scheme’s Chaplains for Wellbeing offer listening and guidance to patients registered to one these practices: Karis Medical; The Wand Medical Centre; Bath Row Medical Practice; Bournbrook Varsity Medical Centre; Harborne Medical Practice Centre; Sherwood House Medical Practice or University Medical Practice. Over 400 clients accessed sessions this year.
Bethel Health & Healing Network offered Rapha Listening Services for those aged 18+ looking for a ‘listening ear’. Clients could access up to 9 sessions either online, over the phone, video or in person. Over 200 clients accessed sessions this year.
Bethel Health & Healing
LWUK’s partnership with Solihull Rural PCN continued this year through the employment of a Health and Wellbeing Coach at Arden Academy. They see young people aged 11 to 18 and offer signposting, peer-to-peer support, wellbeing tips and support finding coping strategies. Over 300 sessions have been delivered so far.
LWC Staff Wellbeing
As an organisation that works to improve the mental health and wellbeing of the local community, the wellbeing of our staff has always been one of our focuses. We strive to ensure employees are at the heart of our business development and that we support our staff as much as we support our service users.
One aspect of this is the Staff Champion. This role was implemented to ensure that staff have a representative they can approach in a pressure-free manner that makes them feel most comfortable.
The Staff Champion is there to offer a friendly, listening ear, but also signpost staff to the most appropriate person to speak to in the organisation for different topics and concerns (e.g., HR, line manager) or additional support services such as our RISE Employee Assistance Programme.
Being selected for a coffee and chat was a delightful experience! Getting the chance to meet a member of the management team and learn a bit about what they do and also getting to know each other was a great way of connecting people within Living Well without the being in an office setting but in a place of our choice where we got to enjoy coffee and brunch!
Poonam Virdee, Clinical Operations and Administration Officer
I genuinely really enjoyed the Wheel of Coffee; it was a stepping outside of my comfort zone experience for me – it was very light-hearted and wholesome. Alex D’Silva was the person I met up with and it was so lovely just talking with each other and eating our delicious brownie.
Anisah Kahar, Data and Administration Officer
Employee Satisfaction Survey
of respondents enjoyed working at LWC a great deal or a lot
of respondents said they felt their feedback is always valued by LWC
or respondents said they felt LWC supports staff wellbeing very or extremely well
of respondents said their work life balance was very good or excellent
of respondents said that they felt LWC was committed to accessibility and inclusion.
of staff said that they were extremely or very satisfied with the investment Living Well Consortium makes in training and education
LWC Staff Development
LWC has always focused on developing their staff as the people working over LWC and its members are one of our greatest resources and strengths.
Alexandra D’Silva:
Alex started working for LWC in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic as an Administration and Data Entry Officer processing referrals into the service. Through this, she gained insight into the operational side of the organisation. As a result, Alex realised that she was interested in progressing through this arm of LWC rather than into clinical roles.
Alex felt that her progression and development was always supported by her managers and often discussed this with her line manager in the Administration and Data Entry team. In addition to this, through her Annual Review and the skills audit that is part of this, her experience working in events management prior to working at LWC was realised.
From her role, Alex applied for a vacancy as a Project Assistant working on the new grounded. venues. This combined her experience in events and administration.
When the first grounded. hub opened in Selly Oak, Alex applied to become the General Manager which she felt was a natural progression. Alex was the first person to view the site in Selly Oak when it was a medical practice and now manages the site as the first wellbeing hub of its kind.
Alex feels that even in her current role she is still growing and developing, in part due to the freedom and autonomy she has over the site. Overall, Alex felt that her progression and development has always been supported by LWC.
Awa Njie:
Awa started at LWC in 2018 as an Operations Support Officer having recently graduated from university. She was looking for a role that would give her a wide variety of experience and knowledge.
At the time that Awa started, LWC was a small organisation with only a few staff. As LWC grew, she progressed onto Administration and Operations Manager. This gave her further insight into operations and how this side of the organisation worked.
Following this, she applied for the PWP Traineeship with LWC. Through her work in Administration roles, she already had an understanding of what the PWP role was like and this helped her develop into clinical areas of the organisation.
Once qualified, she became a Clinical Assistant at LWC; this role combined her operations and clinical experience and allowed her to utilise all of her skills enhanced through her work at LWC.
In 2023, she progressed into a Senior PWP role where she has less client contact but still utilises her clinical skills in supervision and case management. She believes that this role uses the skills she developed and learned as an Administration and Operations Manager as well as using her clinical skills in areas such as risk management.
Throughout Awa’s time at LWC, she felt her progression has been supported and encouraged. She feels that LWC has a genuine care for staff and wants to see them develop and grow.
What’s coming next?
