SWLSTG annual report and accounts 2025 to 2026

We have seen such positive progress and improvement this year that take us further towards our mission of Making Life Better Together. We want to begin by thanking our patients, carers, staff, volunteers, partners and local communities for their commitment, compassion and support throughout the year. 

Our mission and values continue to guide everything we do. They remind us that – at a time of significant change globally, nationally and locally – it is important that we stay focused on what matters most. 

This year, we have seen so many improvements across our services. We are increasingly improving care in co-production with patients and carers, with more people receiving support closer to home and in the least restrictive settings possible. We strengthened crisis pathways, expanded community-based support, developed more intensive models of care for people with complex needs and streamlined pathways for children and young people. Community patient survey results also showed more patients felt they were treated with care and compassion.

Reducing health inequalities has remained central to our work. This year we launched our Health Inequalities Strategic Plan and are already seeing some progress, including reductions in restrictive practice and shorter hospital stays for some ethnic groups. This has been supported through quality improvement work, cultural capability training and stronger partnerships with community and faith organisations.

Supporting our staff and creating a great place to work has remained a priority. Our NHS Staff Survey results improved for the fourth consecutive year, with more staff recommending the Trust as both a place to work and receive care. We have continued building a more inclusive and actively anti-racist culture, while investing in leadership, wellbeing and psychological safety.

We achieved our financial targets and strengthened our financial position through a continued focus on quality, reducing reliance on external beds and agency staffing, to improve patient care. Our ambitious Better Communities programme saw £52m invested across our estate, including the development of our children and young people’s facility at Richmond Wellbeing Centre (which opened in May 2026) and Tolworth Hospital, Barnes Hospital and Springfield University Hospital.

Much of this was reflected in our improved position in the NHS Oversight Framework and league tables. While rankings never tell the full story, they reflect the dedication of our teams and the progress being made across quality, performance and experience.

As we look ahead, we know there is still more to do. Demand remains high and inequalities persist, but we are optimistic about the future and ambitious for what we can achieve together. Through programmes that focus on neighbourhood health, we will support earlier intervention, community-led support and stronger local connections. 

In May 2026 our Board approved our refreshed Trust Strategy, shaped by staff, patients, carers, partners and communities, which will guide our focus on what matters most: improving the lives of the people and communities we serve.

We know we cannot improve mental health alone, and we are grateful to the many people, partners and community and faith organisations working alongside us in partnership – thank you.

Ann Beasley, Chair

Vanessa Ford, Chief Executive

As someone with lived experience of mental health services and as a carer, I know how important it is that the voices of patients, carers and families are at the heart of decisions about care. The people who use services every day bring insights that can help shape services, improve experiences and ensure changes focus on what matters most.

Over the past year, I have seen the difference it can make when service users and carers are engaged and involved from the start - I was part of the Trust’s engagement work for the crisis pathway transformation.

It felt as though we began with a truly blank slate. Although it is never easy to recount my experiences, we were all committed to changing things for the better, so being part of the group felt inclusive and positive.

We felt really listened to, and that we were making a meaningful difference for people who use crisis services in the future, who will hopefully have a better experience of mental healthcare.

Together, we were able to reflect on what had been learned and identify practical steps that could be incorporated into the design of the crisis pathway. I feel that the team I worked with approached this project with a genuinely open mind, and that the engagement methodology was a model of best practice.

There is still more to do, but I believe we are making progress. My experience is a good example of how working in partnership with patients, carers and people with lived experience can help create services that are more compassionate, responsive and effective for everyone.