About NCCMH and our work

Founded in 2001 by Tim Kendall and Steve Pilling, the NCCMH developed 36 NICE mental health guidelines. Since 2016, the NCCMH has continued to develop evidence-based guidance as well as quality improvement initiatives, workforce competences and reviews, to support the delivery of high-quality mental health care.

At the NCCMH, we care about people’s mental health and wellbeing. We believe everyone should have equal access to high-quality mental health care, with a platform to voice their needs, at home and work or in education, and in hospital and the community.

To help make this happen, we work with others at a local, national and international level, supporting the improvement of mental health services and redressing mental health inequalities.

We work with stakeholders, including world-leading academics, clinicians and people with lived experience, to deliver products and services including:

• service design and development (care pathways/frameworks and implementation guidance)
• quality improvement (quality improvement programmes for mental health patient safety)
• competence frameworks (skills, knowledge, values and attitudes for mental health professionals)
• reports and research (systematic reviews, rapid reviews, evaluations and reports)
• clinical guidelines (developed for NICE and internationally).

We're led by clinical and strategic directors from the College (Professor Tim Kendall and Dr Shubulade Smith), and an academic and strategic director from University College London (Professor Steve Pilling).

The work is overseen on a day-to-day basis by Tom Ayers (Director), Emily Cannon (Head of Quality Improvement) and Dr Clare Taylor (Head of Quality and Research Development). The rest of the team is composed of:

• researchers
• quality improvement coaches
• project managers
• editors and designers

• a business support administrator.

Our research team brings together experts, including people with lived experience, to review the evidence and develop guidance, reports, competence frameworks and reviews. Services, commissioners and others working in health and social care then use them to raise the standards of mental health care on a local, national and international level. 

Our QI coaches work with mental health teams, inpatient services and across the wider community, to improve how they function and operate. 

We have an NCCMH Equality Advisory Group (EAG), a standing committee of people from a diverse range of backgrounds with lived and learned experiences of mental health services in the UK. The EAG supports the NCCMH to adhere to its commitment to actively advance equality and co-production. The group meets regularly to discuss NCCMH projects from a co-production and equalities perspective.

All our work is underpinned by our commitment to co-production (working collaboratively with people, without hierarchy) and reducing inequalities in mental health care. 

NCCMH already models what we want commissioners to do. By being open to improvements and individual requests, they have made the process of co-production more inclusive while being aware that more can be done. – Steph de la Haye, Expert by experience; Chair and Founder at Survivors of Depression In Transition; Service User Governor – Sheffield Health & Social Care NHS Foundation Trust

Mental health care in our communities is vital for thriving and cohesive neighbourhoods, where the quality of life for every individual counts. To cater for the needs of diverse citizens, they need to be actively involved in commissioning decisions and service design that responds to their needs.

Then, all parties have a genuine chance to get the nature of the support right, and provided at the right time. The community framework [developed by the NCCMH] robustly assists this process. – Jacqui Dyer, Black Thrive Global Director; Equality Advisor to NHS England and HEE; President of the Mental Health Foundation

The NCCMH management board meet quarterly to oversee the NCCMH on behalf of the College.

Tom Ayers | Director, NCCMH

Emily Cannon | Head of Quality Improvement, NCCMH

Andrew Clark | Office Manger, CCQI

Subodh Dave | Dean, Royal College of Psychiatrists

Mary Jane Docherty | Quality Networks - Clinical and Strategic Director, CCQI

Peter Fonagy | Chief Executive Officer, Anna Freud Centre

Adrian James (Chair) | President, Royal College of Psychiatrists

Tim Kendall | Clinical and Strategic Director, NCCMH

Hannah Lucas-Motley | Head of Quality and Accreditation, CCQI

Steve Pilling | Academic and Strategic Director, NCCMH

Alan Quirk | Head of Clinical Audit and Research, CCQI

Paul Rees | Chief Executive, Royal College of Psychiatrists

Trudi Seneviratne | Registrar, Royal College of Psychiatrists

Shubulade Smith | Clinical and Strategic Director, NCCMH

Clare Taylor | Head of Quality and Research Development, NCCMH

Peter Thompson | Director, CCQI