Inclusive Crisis Alternatives – Developing the workforce to deliver services that meet the needs of people, who are neurodivergent or have a learning difficulty, including those from minoritised communities.

What are the aims of the project?

The project is a piece of research, commissioned by and working closely with NHS England, that will identify the training and development needs of the crisis alternative workforce in the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector.

The crisis alternative workforce consists of services that offer support to people in a crisis, as an alternative to A&E and other public healthcare options. The research aims to map out the kinds of training and development staff in this sector need to offer the best support possible.

In particular, the project focuses on the skills and knowledge required to meet the needs of people who are neurodivergent, particularly autistic people and people with ADHD, and/or people who have a learning difficulty.

Can I get involved with the project? If so, how?

We welcome input from staff working in crisis services and Experts by Experience, who are neurodivergent and/or have a learning-difficulty and have either used crisis services or feel like they may need to use one at some point.

Staff and Experts by Experience will be involved in creating the research materials and designing training as part of this project.

We are also interested in the views of people who find crisis alternative services difficult to access or use for any other reasons. This includes people who, when trying to access support, may face barriers related to their culture, age, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, or other experiences e.g. of homelessness, migration, caring responsibilities etc. As part of this project, we would like to better understand how services can address and reduce barriers to ensure everyone can access support.

If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Tracey Hemmerdinger, Crisis Workforce Development Lead, using the contact details on this page.

When will the research take place?

The research will take place during April-June 2025 and the results will form a report to be ready early 2026.

Who commissioned the project?

The project is commissioned by NHS England (North East and Yorkshire Region) who have provided the brief and will be disseminating the final report, which will influence workforce development across the region.

Get in Touch

Please contact Tracey via email wherever possible: TraceyH@TouchstoneSupport.org.uk.

If you have a preference or need for calls over email, please call Tracey on the below phone number:

Call: 07484 911048.

Meet the Team

Tracey Hemmerdinger, Crisis Workforce Development Lead

Frequently Asked Questions

There is a real need to offer people alternatives to being admitted to hospital and provide more support in the community. Recent events, such as the Darzi report into the NHS and the review of the Mental Health Act, have emphasised this need.

There are many people in hospital, who wouldn’t need to be if support was available in the community. This can often be the case for people who are neurodivergent and people who have a learning difficulty.

The NHS is committed to investing in VCSE services to support people in the community. They need to know what training and support staff need to deliver excellent services for everyone. This piece of research will provide NHS England with that information.

The project is looking at services for all ages. We are particularly keen to look at barriers for those who are transitioning between children’s and adult services.

We would like to include the following services:

  • Any service in the VCSE sector, which works with people in mental health crisis. This includes crisis hubs or cafes, crisis houses, mental health helplines (not including 111), and other crisis support services.
  • Any services that work with people who are neurodivergent and/or people who have a learning difficulty.
  • Services that work with people who often find it hard to access mainstream provision. This could include people who, when trying to access support, face barriers related to their culture, age, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, or other experiences i.e. of homelessness, migration, caring responsibilities etc.

The research is across the whole of the North East and Yorkshire region of NHS England. This includes West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and the Humber, and the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) districts.

A learning difficulty is defined by the NHS as “a type of special educational need which affects areas of learning”. This includes conditions such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

A learning disability is defined by the NHS as “a significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information, to learn new skills (impaired intelligence), with a reduced ability to cope independently (impaired social functioning), which started before adulthood.” This piece of work does not cover people with a learning disability as it does not have the resources to do so.

Person-first vs. identity-first language

When describing people we are working with in this project, we have carefully considered the language we use. This includes choosing between using people-first or identity-first language to describe people with different experiences. Below we have explained some of our reasoning behind our language choices:

Autistic people – We have chosen to use identity-first language here, as this description is preferred by most autistic people. This is because most autistic people see being autistic as integral to who they are, not as something they ‘have’. While we will use these terms for our research project, we realise that some autistic people we work with may prefer people-first language (i.e. people with autism) and we will always refer to individuals using the language they prefer to describe themselves.

Disabled people – We have chosen to use this language to reflect the ‘social model of disability’. The social model says that it’s not someone’s condition or impairment that disables them but the barriers created by society. The term ‘disabled people’ reflects this. NHS England and charities working with disabled people like Scope advise to use this term.

In most other cases, we will use people-first language i.e. people with ADHD, people with a learning difficulty.

Other language choices 

Throughout the project, we will refer to Experts by Experience to describe people who bring lived experience of using crisis services and/or of identifying with a particular group or community. The term Experts by Experience highlights the valued expertise that this lived experience brings.