A GROUND-BREAKING mental health recovery college which has helped over a thousand 'students' from Oldham and beyond is expected to save the NHS over £1m a year.

The positive difference the Health and Wellbeing College, run by Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, has had since its opening in 2017, is estimated to make NHS savings of up to £1.3m, according to a globally published evaluation.

The Ashton-based college - open to people aged over 18 who live in Oldham, Tameside, Rochdale, Bury, Glossop and Stockport - provides students with the skills and knowledge to take control of their mental health recovery, along with opportunities to connect with others.

It's the only one of its kind in the north west and thought to be one of only two in country alongside a similar service in Brighton.

Conducted by college leads George Edgeley and Katie Kay, the evaluation focused on a group of 137 students who had recently received mental health care and treatment.

After they enrolled with the college, nearly two thirds of these students had fewer appointments and phone calls with a mental health professional compared to the previous year, saving money and freeing up clinicians’ time to support people with more complex mental health issues.

The Health and Wellbeing College offers a range of educational mental health recovery courses, including ‘Out of the Blues’ - coping with low mood - ‘Cool It’ - managing anger - and many more.

So far the college has supported 1,214 students.

There are currently six volunteers and 16 former students have been offered paid employment as a part-time peer trainer.

This involves using their lived experience of mental health issues to support students and to develop and deliver courses.

Through this, the peer trainers are able to continue their recovery and take the next step towards developing a meaningful and active life.

In addition to the savings the evaluation found there a 19 per cent reduction in time clinicians would normally spend with this particular set of students.

Based on each appointment or phone call taking two hours, college intervention freed up 1,570 hours of clinicians’ time, again allowing them to support those with more complex mental health issues.

On top of this, the study highlighted many positive and invaluable benefits to students.

Not only did they report feeling that the college provides them with a sense of belonging, identity and a connection to others, many have developed friendships which really help to speed up their recovery.

George said: “We speak to students every single day, so we’ve known for a long time that the college can make a real difference to people’s lives and play a vital role in their recovery.

“We’re delighted we now have strong evidence of how the college benefits patients, staff and the NHS.

Katie added: “We’d now like to look into working with colleagues from a local university on a longer-term piece of research. We’re keen to share our evaluation nationally and encourage the development of more services like the college.

“Based on our evaluation, the savings for the NHS as a whole could be ground breaking.

“Excitingly we’ve already had the opportunity to speak at several national and international conferences and have more planned later this year.”

The evaluation report has been published on Emerald Insight and a copy is available at www.penninecare.nhs.uk/collegefeb2019

For further details about the college, including how to enrol, are available at www.hwcollege.penninecare.nhs.uk.