Northpoint Navigator: Simplifying Access, Improving Outcomes

Northpoint Navigator is a transformational digital innovation that responds to one of the most urgent challenges facing children and young people’s mental health services: how to provide timely, equitable access during unprecedented demand, with finite budget and capacity.

First delivered within Calderdale’s Open Minds partnership, where Northpoint has led the First Point of Contact (FPoC) since 2014, Navigator was developed in response to acute system pressure. Demand for mental health support and neurodevelopmental assessment had risen sharply, outpacing workforce growth and legacy administrative processes, resulting in significant backlogs and extended waiting times for families by 2023. These conditions reflected national trends and created a clear imperative for change.

Navigator reimagines access to mental health and neurodevelopmental support through an intelligent digital referral journey that adapts to referrers’ needs. Developed through co production and live delivery, it combines smart digital design with compassionate, person-centred care, feeding directly into referral management and patient record systems to improve quality, safeguarding oversight and reduce duplication.

The impact has been measurable: inappropriate referrals have reduced, waiting times from referral to assessment have shortened, and families experience clearer, faster next steps.

Following successful delivery, Northpoint was recommissioned in 2025 and the model is now being implemented in Leeds. We’re proud of its human-centred design, measurable impact and ability to turn system pressure into an opportunity for meaningful improvement. We continue to innovate within Navigator to increase impact. “Listened to me and came back within a week with my next steps … fantastic" (quote from young person)