NHS Cheshire & Merseyside Children & Young People’s Mental Health Plan 1 Year Refresh 26/27
We're inviting partners across Cheshire & Merseyside to help us share and test our draft one-year Children & Young People’s (CYP) Mental Health Plan (2026/27) with the people it matters to most: children, young people, parents, carers and lived-experience groups.
This is a short, focused plan built on the strong foundations of our 2024–2026 transformation work. It aims to deliver realistic, meaningful improvements over the next 12 months during a time of significant system change and financial pressure. That context makes your support and local insight more important than ever.
The draft plan has been shaped by what CYP and families have already told us, but we want to go further. We want CYP and carers to have the chance to:
Tell us what is clear, what feels meaningful and what doesn’t.
Check whether we are focusing on the right things for the next year.
Highlight anything that feels unrealistic, missing or not explained well.
Suggest improvements that would make the biggest difference to their experiences locally.
This one-year refresh is about doing the fundamentals well, protecting the most vulnerable and strengthening a health and care system under real pressure. Honest, grounded feedback will help us prioritise realistically, transparently and in a way that still feels ambitious for CYP.
What We’re Asking You to Do
We are asking each stakeholder organisation, network or partnership group to:
Share the draft plan
Please circulate the draft plan widely with your:
Youth voice groups
Parent/carer forums
SEND boards and networks
Education & college wellbeing groups
VCSE CYP support services
Lived experience groups and advisory panels
Any other CYP engagement channels you lead or support.
Facilitate discussion in whatever way works best locally
This can be:
A quick discussion in an existing group
A short, focused session (online or in person)
A simple survey
A creative approach (e.g. “What matters most to us” posters or postcards)
A short rating exercise on the four system priorities
One-to-one conversations with CYP who prefer quieter or supported spaces.
We are deliberately keeping this flexible so you can use methods that suit your CYP and families.
Capture feedback and reflections
Please collect responses using whichever format is easiest.
Helpful feedback includes:
What CYP/families like or think is strongest
What feels unclear or unrealistic
Anything missing
What they think will make the biggest difference in 2026/27
How well the plan reflects their lived experience
What they would want us to communicate more simply or honestly.
Return all feedback by: 12th January 2026
Please send all feedback, summaries, notes or creative outputs to
Themed and analysed against the four system priorities
Reviewed by the C&M CYP Emotional Wellbeing & Mental Health Programme Partnership on 21st January 2026
Used to refine the final plan before publication
Reflected transparently in a short “You Said, We Did” summary for CYP and families.
Thank You
Thank you for your vital role in supporting this engagement.
Your networks and relationships with CYP and families mean the plan will be shaped by real experiences, not assumptions.
In a year where resources are tight and the system is evolving, collaboration is our strongest lever for making improvements that are felt by children, young people and their families across Cheshire & Merseyside.