Stronger together: Reflections on our first year of leading the UOK East Sussex partnership

Posted on 25 April 2025

Southdown’s vision for UOK has been to create a mental health system for our communities that is accessible and inclusive, holistic and preventative. We believe that collaboration is key, when the issues are so big, no one single agency or provider can address them alone.

UOK East Sussex brought our successful Brighton and Hove UOK model to the county, building on an approach that puts people and partnerships at its core. In our first year, our focus has been on deepening relationships with our existing partners, Seaview in St Leonards and Possability People, while also laying the groundwork for welcoming new organisations into the UOK East Sussex partnership.

As lead provider, Southdown has been successful in completing the process of redesigning our Wellbeing Centre offer by co-producing alongside our colleagues across our services, professionals from the East Sussex VCSE sector, people with lived experience, East Sussex County Council, and our own Southdown teams. We are pleased that the redesigned Wellbeing Service will enable people in East Sussex to access support locally when they need it, through information, groups, courses, peer support, volunteering opportunities and safe spaces. Procurement tendering is already underway, and we’re encouraged by the positive response so far.

“Engagement with the VCSE organisations and communities across Sussex – are two significant milestones in our journey so far.” – Stuart Reid, Partnership Lead UOK East Sussex.

Expanding access: Launching Qwell

Our approach and services are informed by the needs of the people they are meant to serve. We know that people who require support with their mental health and wellbeing aren’t always able to access services in person, and some would simply prefer to access resources and support online. That’s why we added Qwell, a brilliant free, anonymous, and nationally recognised online service. It takes just a few minutes to sign up and allows people to access supportive information resources, self-guided activities (such as journaling, mood tracking, and goal setting), peer-to-peer forums for moderated conversations and support, supportive messaging with mental health practitioners, available at any time, and professional live text chat support when needed.

Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Anyone living in East Sussex, as well as Brighton & Hove, can access this service free of cost, through our joint UOK website www.uok.org.uk

Insights and learning

One of the most striking insights from year one has been the professionalism and commitment of everyone involved. Across services and organisations, there’s a shared determination to provide the highest quality support, grounded in equity and inclusion.

Through our years of working in East Sussex, we’ve understood the challenges that come with operating in a large county without an equitable spread of services. One year of leading UOK East Sussex has shown us what it truly takes to overcome these challenges: the commitment and adaptability of partners, staff and our service users. We are surrounded by people and organisations full of resilience and agility and working alongside them has only strengthened our belief in collaboration. While Southdown is the lead provider, we know we are better and stronger, doing this together.

Looking ahead

We will be starting off year two of UOK East Sussex with the next stage of the Wellbeing Service procurement. Assessing bids, awarding contracts and mobilising the new service to begin in September 2025. It is exciting to think that this will enable us to deliver valuable services in new areas and reaching communities we currently can’t serve.

It will also be a big year for the new Neighbourhood Mental Health Teams (a model aimed at having joined up and coordinated treatment and support available to people, according to their personal priorities, goals, and needs, irrespective of which organisation provides the support and interventions), and our services, which will play a key role in their delivery.

“As we look to the year ahead, we’re focused on building robust partnerships, celebrating our innovation, like UOK in Brighton & Hove and East Sussex, and staying open to new trends and opportunities that can benefit Southdown and our partners. There’s a real energy and ambition in the work, and it promises to be a busy and exciting year.” – Emma McDermott, Head of Partnerships, Southdown

We are incredibly proud of leading this important work. Here’s to another year of growth, strengthening partnerships, leading services and reaching more people for a deeper impact.