NHS first: Kent and Medway trust digitally records peer support outcomes

Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust has become the first NHS trust in the UK to digitally record the outcomes of peer support, introducing new tools that capture the impact peer support workers have on people’s recovery.

The trust has introduced 3 innovations within its digital patient record system: the Hope, Agency and Opportunity (HAO) outcome measure, a dedicated peer support intervention tab, and an intended activity SNOMED code – part of the NHS’s national system for recording and categorising healthcare activity.

Together, these changes allow peer support activity and outcomes to be recorded consistently in patient records, helping services better understand the difference peer support makes in people’s lives.

The new approach will be formally launched at the trust’s ‘Measuring What Matters’ Peer Support Conference on Friday 13 March. By capturing outcomes digitally, the trust will be able to better understand how peer support contributes to recovery, improve services and generate evidence to support the development of lived-experience roles within mental health care.

Peer support involves people with lived experience of mental health challenges supporting others who may be facing similar experiences. It can help people build confidence, reduce isolation and take positive steps in their recovery. While widely valued by patients and staff, its impact has historically been difficult to measure using traditional clinical tools.

Natalie Phillips, Peer Support Lead at Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust, said:

“This framework allows us to capture the true impact of peer support. For the first time we can record meaningful outcomes digitally, showing both what matters to people receiving support and the value our practitioners deliver.”

The new digital approach also enables peer support practitioners to record their work directly within patient records through the peer support intervention tab and SNOMED activity coding, ensuring peer support activity is visible alongside other mental health interventions.

The HAO outcome measure was developed with people receiving peer support and focuses on three areas that are central to recovery: hope, meaning feeling optimistic about the future; agency, meaning feeling empowered to make decisions about life and recovery; and opportunity, meaning having access to meaningful activities, connections and personal goals.

Dan Brunetti, Occupational Therapist at Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust, said:

“Peer support can play a powerful role in recovery, but historically it has been difficult to evidence its impact. Recording this work digitally helps us understand what makes the greatest difference for people and how services can continue to improve.”

By introducing the measure across its digital systems, the trust is pioneering a new way of demonstrating the value of peer support, helping to build evidence that could inform future research, workforce development and service improvement across the NHS.