The Suicide Prevention Consortium was established in 2021 as part of the Department of Health and Social Care’s Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Health and Wellbeing Alliance.
Over five years, it produced original research, shaped national policy, and amplified the voices of people with lived experience of suicide and self-harm. Its work focused on communities and circumstances most often overlooked: people experiencing economic disadvantage, LGBTQ+ communities, those with no fixed address, and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
The Suicide Prevention Consortium concluded in 2026. It aimed to ensure suicide prevention was treated as an inequalities issue in England. It was led by Samaritans, working with:
- National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA)
- Support After Suicide Partnership (SASP)
- With You (until 2024)
- Lived experience influencers
This page brings together the Consortium’s key insights, themes and outputs, alongside resources that continue to inform suicide prevention policy and practice.
What we've learned
Suicide prevention must be treated as an inequality issue
Risk is not evenly distributed. People facing economic disadvantage, housing instability or discrimination face compounding barriers to both safety and support. Effective prevention must address these structural factors, not just individual crisis points.
“No wrong door” is a principle that services have yet to fully deliver
Across multiple communities and contexts, people told us they were turned away, passed between services or deemed ineligible for support at moments of acute need. Services need to be equipped to have safety conversations regardless of their primary remit.
Lived experience is a design requirement
The most effective policy and practice emerges when people with lived experience of suicide and self-harm are involved from the start, not brought in to validate decisions already made. Co-production takes time and trust, but it produces better outcomes.
Stigma operates differently in different communities
There is no single story of stigma. For LGBTQ+ communities, for Roma and Traveller communities, and for others, shame, silence and help-seeking are shaped by specific cultural, social and historical factors. Prevention approaches must reflect this.
Key themes from the work
Access to support (“no wrong door”)
A consistent finding across the Consortium’s research was that eligibility criteria, service silos and lack of staff confidence in safety conversations create dangerous gaps. People in crisis were repeatedly falling through the cracks rather than being held by services.
Lived experience and co-production
All the Consortium’s work was underpinned by the voices of people with lived experience of suicide, self-harm and bereavement. Three lived experience influencers sat within the Consortium itself, shaping priorities, scrutinising findings, and ensuring outputs reflected what people needed, not just what services assumed they needed.
Inequality
The Consortium deliberately focused on communities and circumstances where suicide risk is elevated but where research, policy and provision have historically been thinner. This included LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of alcohol and suicidality, the specific vulnerabilities of people with no fixed address, the relationship between economic disadvantage and self-harm, and the experiences of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
Alcohol and suicide
Alcohol featured prominently across the Consortium’s research, both as a risk factor and as a coping mechanism. The Consortium explored this relationship across multiple communities and consistently found that the intersection of alcohol use and suicidal distress was poorly served by existing service structures.
Reports and resources
March 2026 - How could the 10 Year Health Plan support suicide prevention?
What it covers: Insights from workshops we held with people with lived experience to explore how the neighbourhood health service and expansion of digital health services could benefit suicide prevention.
Why it matters: The Government's 10 Year Health Plan, including the establishment of neighbourhood health services and the expansion of the NHS App are key health priorities. We must make sure that these work for people with lived experience of suicidality.
Read the report: How could the 10 Year Health Plan support suicide prevention? (PDF download)
March 2025 – From principles to practice
What it covers: How the core principles of “no wrong door” and person-centred care can be implemented in practice, drawing on insight from people with lived experience and practitioners.
Why it matters: Principles are only valuable if they change how services behave; this report bridges the gap between policy intent and frontline reality.
Read the report: From principles to practice (PDF download)
May 2024 – Partners in prevention
What it covers: A sense-check of the Government’s national Suicide Prevention Strategy for England against what people with lived experience said needed to change.
Why it matters: It holds the strategy accountable to the people it is meant to serve and identifies where the final document falls short.
Read the report: Partners in prevention (PDF download)
View all reports and resources (2022-2024)
April 2024 – Exploring experiences of accessing support for alcohol issues and suicidal ideation
What it covers: Five key themes where improvement is needed to break down barriers between alcohol and mental health services.
Why it matters: People in dual crisis are too often excluded from both. This report identifies the problem and outlines solutions.
Read the report: Exploring experiences of accessing support for alcohol issues and suicidal ideation
March 2024 – ‘Tomorrow is too late’: suicide prevention support for people with no fixed address
What it covers: Four key themes drawn from lived experience and existing evidence on the risks faced by people experiencing homelessness or housing instability.
Why it matters: People with no fixed address face extreme vulnerability and near-total invisibility in mainstream suicide prevention provision.
Read the report: 'Tomorrow is too late': suicide prevention for people with no fixed address
March 2024 – Exploring suicide and stigma with different communities (blog series)
What it covers: First-person accounts from Roma, Showmen, Gypsy and New Traveller communities on suicide, stigma and what policymakers need to understand.
Why it matters: These voices are rarely present in policy conversations. This series changes that, in the communities’ own words.
Read the blog series: Exploring suicide and stigma with different communities
April 2023 – Alcohol and suicide: insights from LGBTQ+ communities
What it covers: The relationship between alcohol use, suicidality and help-seeking within LGBTQ+ communities, and what effective support looks like.
Why it matters: LGBTQ+ people face elevated risk on multiple dimensions; understanding the specific role of alcohol is essential for targeted, effective provision.
Read the report: Alcohol and suicide: insights from LGBTQ+ communities
March 2023 – Insights from experience: economic disadvantage, suicide and self-harm
What it covers: What people experiencing economic disadvantage told the Consortium about what helps, including community belonging, and what needs to change.
Why it matters: Poverty is a suicide risk factor, but it is rarely framed as such in prevention strategies. This report makes the case clear and in people’s own words.
Read the report: Insights from experience: economic disadvantage, suicide and self-harm (PDF download)
February 2022 – Alcohol dependency and suicide: lived experience perspectives
What it covers: The relationship between alcohol and suicide as experienced by people living in England, including barriers to support and what works.
Why it matters: One of the first pieces of work to centre lived experience on this specific intersection, it set the direction for much of the Consortium’s subsequent research.
Read the report: Alcohol dependency and suicide: lived experience perspectives
Voices and lived experience
Blogs
Reflecting on the Suicide Prevention Consortium: where we began and where we are now
We reflect on the Consortium’s journey from its launch in 2021 to the present day, what has been achieved, what has changed, and what it has meant to have lived experience at the heart of the work.
Videos
The relationship between alcohol and suicide (LGBTQ+ communities)
Hear directly from people about how alcohol and suicidal distress intersect in their lives, and what services need to understand to respond effectively.
From policy to practice: implementing the principles of suicide prevention
Find out what it takes to move from strategy commitments to real change on the ground, with reflections from practitioners and people with lived experience.
Tomorrow is too late: suicide, homelessness and people with no fixed address
Discover more about the acute, often fatal, gap between the needs of people experiencing homelessness and what current services provide.
Timeline of the Consortium's work
2026
January: Lived experience workshops exploring what the 10-year health plan means for suicide prevention
March: Findings paper published, drawing on insights from the workshops
March: Three videos published bringing key reports to life: alcohol and suicide; from policy to practice; and suicide prevention for people with no fixed address
2025
Report published - From principles to practice
2024
January: NSPA Annual Conference presentation on LGBTQ+ alcohol and suicide findings
March: Report published – suicide prevention for people with no fixed address
March: Blog series launched – suicide and stigma in Roma, Gypsy, Showmen and Traveller communities
April: Report published – accessing support for alcohol issues and suicidal ideation
May: Report published – Partners in Prevention (sense-checking the national strategy)
2023
January: NSPA Annual Conference presentation on involving lived experience in health inequality policy
March: Report published – economic disadvantage, suicide and self-harm
April: Report published – alcohol and suicide in LGBTQ+ communities
2022
January: NSPA Annual Conference presentation on alcohol dependency, suicide and lived experience
February: First research exploring alcohol and suicide in people’s own words
June: Spoke to 50+ people with lived experience to shape the next national Suicide Prevention Strategy for England
2021
September: Launch of the Suicide Prevention Consortium as part of the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance
What happens next
Government funding for the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance came to an end in March 2026 which means the Suicide Prevention Consortium has now finished its work.
Its reports, resources and recommendations remain publicly available and will continue to inform suicide prevention policy and practice in England.
Samaritans, NSPA and SASP continue their work in suicide prevention and support. Samaritans is continuing to use the insight and learning from SPC's work including in influencing work around middle aged men and the Government's 10 year health plan.
Links to their current programmes are below.