**1. Introduction**

In the UK, Third-Sector Organisations (TSOs) are a collective term for voluntary and community agencies, charities, and social enterprises, of which a sub-section provides health and social care via independent and value-driven services [1]. Recent audits of the whole sector reveal a notable presence, with over 160,000 organisations and nearly 1-million employees and volunteers operating in the UK [1]. Across many high-income countries, it is an area which is growing rapidly as governments seek to harness their innovation and local capabilities [1, 2]. Given their nature, TSOs tend to be highly regarded for their proximity to the community, welcoming facilities, and the ability to engage those with complex and chronic needs [1–4].

Despite the potential benefits of TSOs, little research has been undertaken to evidence their impact and effectiveness [2, 3]. Research applicable to many mental health care TSOs in the UK, including systematic reviews [2], national audits [1] and interviews with mental health charities [3], highlight the clinical and economic barriers affecting the production and utilisation of practice-based evidence (PBE). Many are constrained by tight budgets and scarce resources and often exist as 'microentities' making bidding processes and research prohibitively expensive [1, 4]. The evidence that has been produced has been characterised as low in quality, lacking methodological rigour, theoretical modelling, and reliance on non-representative stakeholder feedback [2, 3]. Access to learning is equally challenging with constraints on resources to review the latest research literature [3, 4].

For TSOs to overcome these challenges, there must be greater alignment of needs and priorities between providers, commissioners, policymakers and academic institutions. One approach to optimising the production and sharing of knowledge has been to form collaborative learning networks (CLNs) of services using a similar treatment model or methodology for generating evidence [5]. By partnering with similar providers, these networks enable organisations to explore, share and integrate learning across a network, maximising the potential for practice-based learning. CLNs have demonstrable potential within the UK mental health care sector, having reported success in the Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) programme [6] and Children and Young People's [5] services. The IAPT programme, which is a national government-funded initiative for English primary mental health services, has been an influential driver in generating public domain service performance data. Having mandated sessional measurement across all services over a decade ago, it has recently achieved pre-and-post outcomes completion rates of 98% for clients completing therapy [7]. These high levels of data completeness are essential for supporting CLNs [6].

The quality implementation framework (QIF) [8] has been previously used as a schematic structure to introduce practice changes, including routine outcome monitoring (ROM), within mental health care services [9]. This model synthesises 25 implementation methods from almost 2000 evaluation reports, comprising 4 action phases and 14 critical steps [8]. Combined with research on the value of CLNs, an initiative was undertaken to bring together multiple TSOs delivering mental health care to enhance service quality. This chapter describes the rationale, process, and outcome of this initiative across its initial start-up and first year of operation using a traditional storytelling structure, with reference to the QIF [8] and other implementation frameworks [10–13].

#### **1.1 Telling stories**

Implementation science is the scientific study of techniques to enhance the quality and effectiveness of health services by advancing the systematic uptake of evidence-based practice (EBP) in routine clinical settings [14]. The learning from the field demonstrates the gap between what is shown to be effective to what is implemented in practice [14]. According to the QIF, in preparation for implementing practice change, agents must assess the host setting and build capacity, meeting with the service, analysing its infrastructure, surveying and training practitioners, and securing buy-in [8, 9]. Regardless of how well-founded and robust the evidence may be, it is no guarantee it will be accepted and readily adopted by stakeholders [9, 15]. Persuasive communication is therefore critical for framing research findings for specific contexts to enhance their uptake and impact [16]. The power of storytelling is increasingly recognised as an effective technique for transforming attitudes, perceptions and behaviours as they summarise concepts simply, quickly

*Evaluating the Efficiency of a Collaborative Learning Network in Supporting Third Sector… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84294*

and effectively, appealing directly to a stakeholder's values and interest [16]. For instance, within UK mental health care services, storytelling as a technique has been associated with rapid improvements in data quality [9]. It is for this reason, our chapter aims to share the experiential learning and evaluation of this CLN for mental health care TSOs using a traditional storytelling outline, describing its setting, characters, plot, and themes.
