Community mental health survey 2025

Page last updated: 27 March 2026

What we found

The results show improvement in some areas, including support while waiting for care and interactions with staff. However, overall performance of NHS community mental health services remains poor, especially for certain groups. Many people are still reporting poor experiences of contacting crisis services and the care they receive. Wider areas of a person’s life are not being supported where people would have liked this support including support with physical health, joining a group or finding work or benefits. Overall, younger people, autistic people and disabled people reported worse than average experiences of care.

Positive results

Support while waiting

There has been an increase in people being offered support for their mental health while waiting between their assessment and first appointment compared to 2 years ago, from 58% in 2023 to 62%.
Furthermore, 92% of people felt the support provided was appropriate either ‘completely’ or ‘to some extent’, which is consistent over time (91% in both 2024 and 2023).

Mental health team

Experiences have improved across key areas, including feeling ‘always’ listened to (55% compared to 52% in 2024) and ‘definitely’ being given enough time to discuss needs and treatment (53% compared to 51% in 2024 and 50% in 2023).
Nearly half of people (41%) ‘definitely’ received the help they needed; an increase compared to 38% in 2024 and 39% in 2023.
Sixty-seven per cent of people were ‘always’ treated with care and compassion; an increase from 65% in 2023 and 2024.

Medication

The majority of respondents reported receiving medication for their mental health needs (85%) and 78% were asked how they were getting on with their medication.
Most people also had clear discussions about their medicines, with 91% having had the purpose of their medicine explained to them either ‘definitely’ or to ‘some extent’. In addition, 87% had the benefits of their medicine explained to them ‘definitely’ or to ‘some extent’.
There have been increases in people ‘definitely’ having had the side-effects of their medicine explained to them (43% compared to 41% in 2024 and 2023) and what would happen if they stopped taking their medication (43% compared to 41% in 2024 and 39% in 2023).

Support to access care or treatment

More people reported needing support to access care, from 28% in 2023 to 35%, and there has been an increase in being asked if they need support to access care (46% compared to 44% in 2024 and 41% in 2023).
Of those that required support to access their care and treatment, 66% felt it met their needs either ‘completely’ or ‘to some extent’.

Key areas for improvement

Crisis care

In a crisis, 83% know who to contact out of hours; an increase compared to 78% in 2024 and 2023. However, a quarter of people either waited too long for (20%) or could not get through to (5%) to crisis services the last time they contacted them.
Around a third (32%) did not get the help they needed when they did make contact and nearly half (45%) said no information or support was offered to their family or carers while they were in crisis.

Waiting for treatment

Longer waits are associated with poorer experiences, including an increase in respondents reporting that their mental health got worse the longer they waited. A quarter (25%) of people who waited less than 2 weeks said their mental health got worse while they waited, compared to 67% of those who waited more than 6 months.

Your care

Nearly a quarter (23%) of people were either not involved or were not aware of a plan for their care and 22% did not feel supported to make decisions about their care and treatment.
While there has been improvement since 2023, 41% of people are still not having care review meetings (compared with 43% in 2024 and 44% in 2023).

Psychological therapies

Thirty-nine per cent of people had not received therapy but would have liked it, whilst 40% felt they waited too long between their assessment with the NHS mental health team and their first therapy appointment. However, this is a decrease compared with 44% in 2024.

Support with other areas of life

Nearly half (45%) of respondents received no help or advice for joining a group or activity; a small increase compared to 44% in 2024. No help or advice was offered to 66% of people with finding support for help with money or benefits.
Thirty-eight per cent of respondents did not receive support for physical health needs, but they would have liked this.
One in 5 people (20%) would like their family or friends to be more involved.

Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS)

Results for people using CAMHS indicated poorer experiences across multiple areas of care.

Forty-six per cent of respondents waited 3 months or more for their first appointment for treatment and over half (54%) received no support while waiting.
In a crisis, 27% said they had to wait too long and 51% did not get the help they needed.
A quarter (25%) were not involved in a plan for their care or were not aware of one, whilst 45% had not had a care review meeting in the last 12 months.
Just under a quarter (24%) of respondents had not been told who to contact if they had any questions or concerns about their care or treatment.

Older people’s mental health services (OPMHS)

Survey respondents using OPMHS generally reported more positive experiences of interacting with their mental health team.

Waiting times improved, with 29% saying they waited less than 2 weeks (compared with 24% in 2024 and 21% in 2023). More people also said they were offered support while waiting (66% compared with 58% in 2024 and 61% in 2023).
Seventy-five per cent felt the mental health team ‘always’ listened to what they had to say and 85% were ’always’ treated with care and compassion (an increase from 82% in 2024).
One in five (20%) of respondents said they did not have a plan for their care or were not aware of one.
Nearly two-thirds (65%) did not get any help with support for money or benefits and 35% did not receive any help or advice with finding support to join a group.

How experience varies for different groups of people

Respondents reporting worse than average experiences across multiple questions included younger people (aged 16-35), disabled people and autistic people, as well as people who access services over the telephone. Areas of care for which these groups reported worse experiences included being treated with care and compassion, feeling listened to, being given the help they needed from services and being supported to make decisions about their care and treatment.

Results for NHS trusts

A-Z list of results by NHS trust

Each trust has been provided with a benchmark report, which provides: details of the survey methodology, headline results, the trust score for each evaluative question, and banding for how a trust score compares with all other trusts.

Community mental health survey 2025: Benchmark reports

Reports

Open data

Supporting information

How will results be used?

We will use the results from the survey to build an understanding of the risk and quality of services and those who organise care across an area. Where survey findings provide evidence of a change to the level of risk or quality in a service, provider or system, we use the results alongside other sources of people’s experience data to inform targeted assessment activities.

Other organisations

NHS trusts

Trusts, and those who commission services, use the results to identify and make the changes they need to improve the experience of people who use their services.

NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care

Information collected nationally in a consistent way is essential to support public and Parliamentary accountability. The results are used by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care for performance assessment, improvement and regulatory purposes.