Background
North East England NHS Foundation Trust, a major provider of mental health and community services, supports a population of 1.4 million across a 2,200-square-mile region. With over 6,000 employees, the Trust operates a wide range of clinical services, including the Children and Young People’s Service (CYPS). CYPS employs around 320 whole-time equivalent staff and delivers specialist community mental health and learning disability care for children aged 0–18 across three localities.
Faced with increasing demand, limited resources, and an urgent need to reduce spending on bank, agency, and overtime, the Trust commissioned Meridian Productivity to assess and redesign CYPS operations. This initiative followed successful Meridian-led improvements in Allied Health Professionals, forensic mental health, and call handling services at the Trust.
Analysis
Meridian’s 35-day diagnostic uncovered several key areas of operational inefficiency. These included:
Wide variability in productivity across service lines
Inconsistent management controls and processes
Misalignment of team size and skill mix with service demand
Lack of standardised clinical workflow systems
No unified measurement of performance or productivity
These inefficiencies were driving overspend and impacting the quality and timeliness of care delivery. The analysis established a clear case for transformation, setting a target of a 22% productivity improvement and significant reductions in agency and overtime spend.
Implementation
Over a 33-week improvement programme, Meridian worked in close partnership with CYPS leaders and frontline teams. Through structured workshops, one-to-one coaching, and service-wide engagement, we facilitated the co-design of new clinical pathways and installed a robust, data-driven management control system.
Key actions included:
Introduction of Named Patient Contact (NPC) planning tools to align activity with demand
Weekly service performance reporting with real-time KPI dashboards
Monthly caseload reviews to control demand and optimise staff allocation
Escalation frameworks and governance processes to support timely decision-making
Tighter controls on bank, agency, and overtime usage
The behavioural change component was central. All management levels were trained to understand and act upon the variance between planned and actual activity—ensuring accountability and sustainable improvement.
Results
The impact of the CYPS redesign was both immediate and transformative:
£1.4 million saved over the course of the programme
45% improvement in service productivity
Recurring weekly savings of £18,495 achieved within the first two weeks
Return on investment of 10:1, significantly surpassing the projected 6.4:1
More importantly, CYPS managers are now equipped with the systems, insights, and confidence to manage demand more effectively and sustainably. The Trust is better positioned to deliver high-quality mental health and learning disability services for young people—while maintaining financial control.
Want to improve service efficiency in community and mental health care? Partner with Meridian to turn operational pressure into measurable performance gains.
