Have your say on our rehabilitation services
Published on: XX Month 202X
Have your say on our rehabilitation services reconfiguration proposal
Service user and carer engagement is one of our core commitments and we have a statutory responsibility to involve service users and carers in decision making and service developments that affect them.
As such, we would like to hear your views about proposed service developments for our rehab services in 2026.
We are one of the largest specialist mental health providers in the country, providing inpatient and community-based mental health care for people living in Bolton, the city of Manchester, Salford, Trafford and Wigan, and a wide range of specialist mental health and addiction services across Greater Manchester, the north west of England and beyond.
We also provide Health and Justice Services in a number of custodial settings. We employ over 7,000 members of staff and deliver services from 109 locations with an annual income forecast of £510.2million for 2024/24. In a 12-month period we expect to meet the needs of around 97,000 service users.
Summary of proposed changes
Development of 11 Community Recovery studio flats
There will be seven self-contained studio flats in Trafford and four self-contained studio flats in Salford. Both will be co-located with our Home Engagement and Rehabilitation Team (HEART). Please find below some visuals of what these spaces could look like.
Visuals of what the Community Recovery studio flats could look like
Growth of Community Rehabilitation Services
We will expand the capacity of our community team (HEART) so that they will be able to support an increase of service users from 75 to 150 and expand this offer wider across Greater Manchester to enable the service to cover Bolton as well as Manchester and Salford.
Changes to our community rehab inpatient services
As part of this development, we are proposing that Anson Road (Level 1 open rehabilitation) will close and Bramley Street which is currently utilised as a step-down service will recommence as a Level 1 open rehabilitation service. We will close 17 beds at Anson Road but reopen 12 at Bramley Street.
Changes to the functioning of Fern Ward at North View
Fern Ward based at North View at North Manchester General Hospital will close as a Level 2 high dependency unit (HDU) rehabilitation inpatient ward. It will reopen as a 17 bedded male acute inpatient ward.
Why we want to make these changes
A number of important pieces of work nationally have taken place since 2024 to improve the quality of mental health, learning disability and autism services available within the NHS.
The aims and objectives to improve services were set out in something called ‘The NHS Long Term Plan’. This developed a national programme of work and helped to create guidance on how NHS services should run inpatient and community mental health rehabilitation services.
Links to this guidance are below:
- NHS England | Commissioner guidance for adult mental health rehabilitation inpatient services
- NHS England | Commissioner guidance for adult community mental health rehabilitation services
In Greater Manchester (GM) the Integrated Commissioning Board (ICB) have supported organisations to come together to see how we as NHS services use these developments to improve our services and offer to our service users and carers. This included engagement with people with lived experience and their carers to inform the GM approach.
Work has begun on next steps and we have been working with people on what rehab services are currently on offer across the city and what our services should look like moving forward.
The highlighted guidance focuses on a community first model of care and an avoidance, if possible, in inpatient care. This is also in line with the new 10-year plan for the NHS priorities (Hospital to Community).
These changes we are proposing will enable Greater Manchester Mental Health Services to expand its current community rehab offer and ensure where possible that our service users receive care in their own homes close to family and their loved ones supported by trained professional via the HEART team.
The 11 flats being developed will support the move to a community first model of rehab within our services. These services will add a further avenue in the rehabilitation pathway and will support service users stepping away from inpatient care who require some skill development in more independent living.
These proposed changes will also enable our rehabilitation service to develop a dedicated patient flow service. This team will contain staff experienced and dedicated to ensuring our service users are discharged from inpatient care into appropriate accommodation for their needs once their rehabilitation journey has ended.
As part of this transformational programme of work, Fern Ward at North View on the Manchester General Hospital site will reopen as a 17 bedded acute inpatient unit.
This will enable service users that are currently being cared for away from their families and communities to return closer to home. This will also support prevention of future use of out of area beds where service users have been cared for sometimes many miles from their local areas, families and loved ones.
What we have now versus what we would like to have in the future
We now refer to our different rehab inpatient beds in accordance to the identified new guidance. These are now described as either Level 1 or Level 2 inpatient services.
Level 1 is what was previously referred to as open rehab or community rehab inpatient beds. Level 2 was previously described as High Dependency Units or locked rehab inpatient beds.
| What we have now | What we would like to have in the future |
|---|---|
|
High Dependency Units - Level 2
|
High Dependency Units - Level 2
|
|
Open Rehab - Level 1
|
Open Rehab - Level 1
|
|
Stepdown
|
Community Flats
|
|
Community Team
|
Community Team
|
How you can tell us what you think
- Have your say by completing our survey using this link: Have your say rehab service reconfiguration. If you would like a paper copy of this survey either by post or email, please contact nigel.skillen@gmmh.nhs.uk.
- You can have your say at your community meetings within your services or through one-to-one meetings with our staff.
- We can come to your meetings to talk to people. We’re particularly interested in connecting with independent service user / carer forums across Greater Manchester. If you would like us to attend one of your forum’s, please contact nigel.skilled@gmmh.nhs.uk.
Consultation period
The consultation will start on Monday 5 January 2026 and will end on Monday 26 February 2026.
When and how we will communicate our decisions back to you
We will feed back our decisions by Tuesday 31 March 2026 to everyone who had their say and we will publish this on our website on Tuesday 31 March 2026.
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