Community Mental Health Survey

We are carrying out a survey to understand what you think about your care.

This is a national survey and last year over 12,000 people shared their views. The results are crucial to improving the quality of care and people’s mental health care experiences.

Participation is voluntary and all answers are confidential.

If you do not wish to take part, it will not affect the care you receive from the NHS. You can decide not to take part, or if you do not want to answer some of the questions, you can do so without giving a reason.
 

If you do not wish to take part, or for your details to be shared with researchers so you can be sent a questionnaire, or if you have any questions then please let us know by the end of May using the contact details below.

You may be sent a letter inviting you to take part in this important survey in a few months’ time because you have used community mental health services recently. 

If you are invited to take part, your name, phone number, and postal address will only be used by researchers to carry out the survey. Your information will not be shared with anyone else, and all published data is anonymised.

The survey is being carried out by researchers from this NHS Trust, the Care Quality Commission and the Survey Coordination centre at Picker.

The results will be published on CQC’s website when they are available.

View the results from previous surveys.

The information you give us will be held securely and will be treated in strict confidence in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. Personal data about your involvement in this survey is not used for any other purpose and is deleted once the survey process is complete. Your answers to the survey are not linked to your name or full address, but researchers analysing the results of the survey will use your postcode to undertake geographical analysis of overall results.

The 2025 Community Mental Health Survey results have been published by the Care Quality Commission.

The survey provides an insight into the experiences of people using community mental health services across the country.

Our results are based on feedback from 847 service users, reflecting an 18% response rate from a sample of 5000 people. Sussex Partnership scored the same as or above the national average in 18 questions out of 34. The Trust's score for overall experience of care has improved from 6.5 in 2024 to 6.7 this year. The national average is 6.8.

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey, your feedback informs us on the areas where we need to make improvements to enable us to provide the best possible mental health care for our communities.

The survey results show improvements of 1.5% or more in 19 areas compared to the survey results from the previous year, such as being treated with compassion and care, active listening and the time clinicians spend with patients.

Areas identified for improvement include the length of time people are waiting to get through to support during a mental health crisis, people being given help or advice with finding support for help with money or benefits and help and advice with finding support for employment.

The full survey results are published on the CQC website here Community mental health survey 2025 - Care Quality Commission

Overall experience of care

Our score for overall experience of care has improved from 6.5 in 2024 to 6.7 this year. The national average is 6.8 out of 10.

Questions where we performed better than national average

  • Aside from this questionnaire, in the last 12 months, have you been asked by NHS mental health services to give your views on the quality of your care?
  • Did the NHS mental health team give your family or carer information or support whilst you were in crisis?
  • Did you have to repeat your mental health history to your NHS mental health team?
  • Was the support offered appropriate for your mental health needs?
  • Thinking about the last time you received therapy, did you have enough privacy to talk comfortably?
  • Did your NHS mental health team involve you in a plan for your care?

Questions where we performed below national average

  • Thinking about the last time you contacted NHS mental health crisis support, how did you feel about the length of time it took you to get through to someone?
  • Have any of the following been discussed with you about your medication? What will happen if I stop taking my medication?
  • In the last 12 months, did your NHS mental health team give you any help or advice with finding support for help with money or benefits?
  •  In the last 12 months, did your NHS mental health team give you any help or advice with finding support for finding or keeping work?
  • Do you feel the support provided meets your needs?

Trust developments

We will analyse the survey results and address the areas for improvement that have been highlighted in the survey and incorporate these into our annual quality plans to support our five-year organisational strategy.

Our organisational strategy, which was developed in partnership with people who use our services, our staff and our partner organisations, sets out a vision of how we will deliver high quality, specialist NHS mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services for patients, families and carers.

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who completed the 2025 Community Mental Health Survey, your responses will help us make improvements for you and our community.

If you have any questions or comments about the survey, please contact the Participation Team: