This article sets out the conclusions and recommendations of a multidisciplinary working party which from November 1975 considered ‘the extent to which psychiatric resources should be devoted to collaboration and consultation with other care givers rather than to the provision of direct clinical service, and to look at the implications of this for the planning of services and training of psychiatrists’. The working party comprised four sub-groups covering collaboration and consultation with the Community Psychiatric Team, with the Primary Care Team, with volunteers and with educational bodies. Reports from these sub-groups were subsequently collated and edited to make up this paper.