Across Sussex, peer support has changed thousands of lives. It has turned isolation into connection and fear into hope. But now, that lifeline is under threat.
CAPITAL, an entirely lived experience mental health charity supporting nearly 2,000 people every year, is warning that NHS Sussex’s new £5 million Mental Health Support Services contract will decommission vital inpatient peer support. Only 0.2% of the contract value has been allocated to CAPITAL for their lived experience work. This represents an 80% funding cut, removing inpatient peer support, and the majority of community support altogether by the end of 2025.
The Power of Peer Support
Across mental health services, peer support workers bring something no training or policy can replicate; lived experience. Through their presence, services become more human, more hopeful, and more grounded in empathy. Whether on wards, in community hubs, or shaping policies in the West Sussex Lived Experience Advisory Group, peers embody the message that recovery is possible and that people are more than their diagnoses.
Peer support workers help bridge the gap between services and the people they support. They don’t stand above; they stand beside, offering compassion, patience, and proof that things can change.
Evidence That Cannot Be Ignored
In 2024/25, CAPITAL peers supported more than 900 inpatients across Langley Green, Meadowfield, and Oaklands hospitals. Independent evaluations showed:
- 95% said peer support helped them
- 94% felt genuinely listened to
- 97% wanted to meet a peer again
The service is not only effective but also cost saving.
- Every £1 invested in CAPITAL saves £3-£5 in NHS costs
- For the cost of a two-week hospital bed, CAPITAL supports 75 people for a full year
- CAPITAL supports people for just £135 each, less than a single outpatient appointment
“Our entire inpatient peer support service costs less than one part-time Band 3 NHS post per hospital,” says Duncan Marshall, CEO of CAPITAL. “Cutting this isn’t a financial necessity; it’s a political choice. Peer support works where clinical teams often can’t reach. Removing it is knowingly removing a service that saves lives.”
Community Hubs: More Than a Service, It’s a Lifeline
Across West Sussex, CAPITAL’s weekly groups, creative hubs, and community outings have been a source of safety, belonging, and recovery. These are not optional extras; they are lifelines.
For many, attending a group is the first time they feel seen, heard, and accepted. As one member shared, “It’s amazing being with other people who understand my mental health issues. I love being in the groups.”
In Bognor, Crawley, East Grinstead, and beyond, members come together to create, chat, and heal through arts and crafts sessions, weekend socials, and community outings. Online hubs connect those unable to travel.
Many of CAPITAL’s staff were once members themselves. Carol, CAPITAL peer support worker reflected “I joined CAPITAL after my own mental health journey. I’ve been a Peer Support Worker for several years now, and I’m able to see the triggers and know how to guard against them.” Linda, now a Trustee says “Capital have got the best knowledge, because everybody there has been there. In one way or another, they understand what you’re going through. And they’re honest. They don’t give you the jargon that doctors do, that the other companies do. With Capital, you know you’re safe.”
When funding disappears, these connections disappear too, and isolation returns.
Lived Experience in Action
Mandy, another CAPITAL peer worker, recently shared her story as part of a campaign to raise awareness about the impending cuts. Her reflections captured why peer support matters. “Our voices come from real experience,” she said. “We show people that it’s possible to rebuild because we have.”
Her words echo the truth behind CAPITAL’s work: lived experience transforms care, not just for those supported but also for the peers themselves, who find purpose, connection, and ongoing recovery through their roles.
View Mandy’s video on CAPITAL’s YouTube channel:
Building a Future for Lived Experience Leadership
While public funding is being cut, CAPITAL is working to secure the future of peer support and lived experience leadership through CAPITAL Impact Solutions, through training, consultancy, and co-production services designed and led by people with lived experience.
By partnering with NHS organisations, local authorities, and community providers, CAPITAL Impact Solutions offers a sustainable way to fund peer-led innovation while embedding lived experience across systems.
Every contract, workshop, or partnership delivered through CAPITAL Impact Solutions directly reinvests profits back into peer support and community recovery, ensuring that lived experience continues to lead even when statutory funding falls short.
“We want to move beyond surviving cuts,” says Duncan Marshall. “CAPITAL Impact Solutions is about building resilience, creating income that supports people with lived experience to lead change, not just react to it.”
The Cost of Losing Connection
When peer support and community hubs are stripped away, the cost doesn’t just fall on individuals. It ripples across the whole system. NHS services lose the trust and lasting intervention that peer networks provide. Crisis admissions rise. People are left without the human relationships that help them stay well.
“This isn’t about money. It’s about priorities,” says Duncan. “Peer support is proven, trusted, and cost-effective. To cut funds by 80% while commissioning £5 million of services elsewhere is indefensible.”
A Call to Action
CAPITAL is calling on NHS Sussex and local commissioners to:
- Reverse the 80% cut and reinstate peer support to contracts
- Embed lived experience as a permanent, valued part of mental health care, not a token add-on
- Fund lived experience leadership properly, ending exploitation and tokenism
To those shaping mental health services: peer roles are not extras. They are essential.
Lived experience is what keeps services human. It builds trust, inspires hope, and saves lives as well as millions of pounds. Now, more than ever, we must protect what works.
Support peer support. Protect lived experience. Let it live and let it lead.
How You Can Help
- Partner with or support CAPITAL to keep vital community and inpatient support alive, or CAPITAL Impact Solutions to bring lived experience expertise to your organisation, training, or project.
- Donate or fundraise to sustain peer-led recovery and our community hubs.
- Share our message to ensure that lived experience continues to shape the future of mental health in Sussex and beyond.
Find out more at www.capitalcharity.org / www.capitalimpactsolutions.co.uk
Email us at enquiries@capitalcharity.org