Below is the most up-to-date version of the draft policy co-produced between StopSIM and NHS England, dated 23.12.22.
This policy was informed by extensive stakeholder engagement, including service users and lived experience groups, service providers, professional bodies and mental health charities.
In January 2023, this draft policy was approved for publication by stakeholders and all NHS England senior executives, with the exception of the Communications Office, as well as NHS England’s legal team (prior to Wessex AHSN’s challenges). This includes Amanda Pritchard (CEO), David Sloman (COO), Claire Murdoch (Senior Responsible Officer for mental health) and Tim Kendall (national clinical director for mental health).
Although it has not been formally endorsed by NHS England, we urge individual Trusts to recognise the strength of support for this policy, among service users, stakeholders and professionals, and adopt this policy locally. The detail in this policy provides a level of clarity that is currently absent from the brief statement issued by Tim Kendall, as well as including recommendations about the care Trusts should now provide patients who have been under SIM or a similar model, and findings of the local reviews conducted in mid 2021.
This draft version of the policy contains some spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. The terms ‘SIM-like’ and ‘SIM and similar models’ are used interchangeably, however, both refer to mental health teams which use some, but not all, elements of SIM (as identified in the policy). For posterity, we have chosen not to edit or correct the original document.
STOPSIM 