The City and Hackney Adult Mental Health JSNA presents evidence on local needs relating to mental health and wellbeing for adults in the CIty and Hackney, as well as how well local services are meeting these needs. It considers prevalence of mental health conditions, inequalities within this prevalence, performance of local mental health services, equity of provision, residents’ experiences of support available and how well the mental health system functions as a whole locally. The report identifies a number of challenges and makes recommendations on how to address them.

The challenges identified broadly fit into four themes, listed below. These should be considered against the backdrop of a City and Hackney population, which overall has high levels of mental health need and complexity.

• Difficulties experienced by residents in accessing and navigating local mental health services,
• Inequalities in mental health need and how inclusive services are,
• Gaps in the quality of insight, driven by fragmented data and inconsistent approaches, limiting effective decision-making,
• The underlying accountability and governance structures for mental health.

Pandemics occur when a new disease spreads rapidly across many people, and often around the world. Because the disease is new, many people do not have protection (existing immunity) against it. As a result, pandemics can be devastating, and can cause serious illness and death. They also put great pressure on health and care services, and disrupt daily lives including education, businesses and the wider economy.

As seen during COVID-19, some groups are more likely to be harmed than others in a future pandemic, including people with no recourse to public funds, some ethnic communities, non-English speakers, people experiencing homelessness, and those working in jobs with a higher risk of infection.

Our recently published Pandemic Preparedness, Response and Recovery Plan explains how we intend to prepare for, respond to and recover from a potential pandemic. It sets out how we aim to act fairly and effectively to protect everyone in the City of London and Hackney.

The 2025 Children and Young People’s Mental Health Needs Assessment aims to understand the current mental health and wellbeing needs of children and young people in the City of London and the London Borough of Hackney.

It recommends reducing inequalities by ensuring services are community-led and culturally informed; improving communication and information-sharing for young people, parents, and professionals; developing more flexible, needs-based approaches beyond; strengthening the role of schools as key partners, particularly during key transition periods; and improving data sharing and quality to better understand needs and drive service improvement.

A new Public Health report highlights a significant increase in eating disorders across City and Hackney. These are serious mental health conditions, and our latest data reveals that local diagnoses are rising, with stark inequalities impacting our communities.

These inequalities highlight the need for early identification and accessible, responsive services. Read the Public Health team’s new report to explore these findings in full and understand what they mean for our communities.