GMMH exits the national Recovery Support Programme
On Thursday 27 November 2025, NHS England formally approved GMMH’s exit from the Recovery Support Programme having recognised the significant improvements in governance, quality and safety that have been achieved because of everyone’s hard work. This means that GMMH can now move out of the Recovery Support Programme, marking an important milestone in our improvement journey.
Karen Howell, Chief Executive of Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“This is a pivotal moment for GMMH and a significant sign of real progress for our organisation. Working with our service users, people and partners we now have traction on our improvement journey. Clearly, it is not the end of the work; sustaining and embedding our progress, in addition to our strategic ambition is now in our focus. We remain committed to continuously improving our services together with our services users and the people at the heart of ensuring we provide safe, high-quality care which contributes to improving lives and health and social outcomes. Our strategic ambition is to ensure that wherever possible we will provide our services nearer to people’s homes or neighbourhoods and if hospital support is required, it will be a positive experience and for as short a time as is possible to support our service users returning to their homes and loved ones.
“Greater Manchester Mental Health has faced serious challenges in recent years, including concerns about leadership, culture and patient safety. We will always be sorry for the failings in the past and we continue to reflect and learn, but over the past 16 months, under new leadership, the Trust has worked tirelessly to rebuild confidence, strengthen governance and improve care for the communities it serves.
“Through a clear focus on recovery, governance and strategy, overseen and supported by NHS England and our partners across Greater Manchester and with the support of dedicated colleagues, service users, their families and our partners, significant progress has been made. I am now confident the Trust is ready to move out of the national Recovery Support Programme, marking an important milestone in our improvement journey.
“I’m proud of what this team has accomplished in such a short time. I think it is fair to say it has been very challenging at times. However, in addition to ensuring we are embedding improvement, the Board is now focused on delivering our strategic aims and setting down a longer-term strategy in 2026 which will focus on communities, collaboration and digitally enhancing both our business and our service provision.
“I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who worked with us to make this happen. We will sustain and deepen wherever possible our work with our service users, their families and other partners to ensure we continue improving for many years to come and develop GMMH as an aspirational and reliable provider of mental health, addiction, learning disability and autism services and a willing and able organisational partner in Greater Manchester.”
Mark Fisher, Chief Executive, NHS Greater Manchester, added:
"We are proud of the progress made in partnership with GMMH during a challenging period. Their commitment to improving governance, safety, and patient care demonstrates their dedication to the people they serve. This achievement reflects the strength of collaboration across our system, and we look forward to supporting their ongoing journey of continued improvement."
