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Published
20 November 2025

Barnsley Street Showcases Neighbourhood Mental Health Support to Local Community

Voluntary and community sector organisations and local members of the community attended a special open day at the Barnsley Street Neighbourhood Mental Health Centre to learn about the project.
Colleagues and partners at the Barnsley Street community event.

Partners were welcome to drop in throughout the day, held on Wednesday 29 October. Colleagues provided an overview of the service including support offered to the community, along with taster sessions of some of the activities that service users can take part in. This included mental health peer support groups, physical activities and writing for wellbeing.

The event follows on from a launch event for the service in July. Staff from ELFT, Look Ahead and the Tower Hamlets Mental Health Alliance welcomed Minister of State for Care, Stephen Kinnock, along with national media and key local stakeholders.

Tower Hamlets was chosen by NHS England as one of six areas across the country to trial new 24/7 centres to support those with mental health needs and was the first area to officially launch its centre.

The Centre is available for local residents with mental health needs registered at any of the following five GP practices:
 

  • Bethnal Green Health Centre

  • The Mission Practice

  • Sutton’s Wharf Health Centre

  • Strouts Place Medical Centre

  • XX Place Health Centre

The service offers planned and drop-in sessions with psychiatrists, nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers, voluntary sector and peer support workers.

The site is owned by Look Ahead, a not-for-profit housing association and social care provider. In partnership with the local authority, the Trust provides clinical staff, social workers and peer support workers, while third sector organisations from the Tower Hamlets Mental Health Alliance are on hand for employment support, social engagement, activities and further peer support.

Below are some comments from key partners who helped to organise the successful day:

“It feels amazing to be at the forefront of this ground-breaking project, developing 24/7 community-based mental health support, alongside dedicated multi-disciplinary colleagues and community members. Without them, the project wouldn’t be where it is today. That said, our work is only just beginning. We’ve got a long journey ahead continuing to develop our service offer, co-produced with Barnsley Street service users and the wider community. I’m excited to see what the future holds for Barnsley Street.

“We put up a simple piece of paper on the wall at the open day to ask attendees one question: “What does Barnsley Street mean to you?” One response stated that “For us, Barnsley means home”, showing how life-changing a service like this can be.”

“We thoroughly enjoyed organising this event at Barnsley Street, and meeting people who are dedicated to supporting those with their mental health needs. None of this would be possible without their buy-in, and we will continue to work with them as we develop our offerings further.

“It was a pleasure to organise the open day and see so many people attend. Most importantly, we welcomed people through the doors who had never heard of Barnsley Street before, demonstrating the value of community outreach.”

“It was great to be joined by so many community members today as we seek to spread the word further about Barnsley Street. It is important for residents in Bethnal Green to know that support is available for them, and we look forward to working with our community partners to shine this light further.”

“I would like to thank our valued partners in Tower Hamlets for coming along today. I hope they found it informative and enjoyed the interactive nature of the activities we showcased.”

If you would like to learn more about the Barnsley Street Neighbourhood Mental Health Centre or ways you can get involved, you can email elft.barnsleynmhc@nhs.net.

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