The recent reorganization of the National Health Service in England and Wales has provided an opportunity for psychiatrists to take part in the planning and development of their local health services. Since extra resources are unlikely to be made available to the mental health services during the next few years this devolution of part of the responsibility for planning means that decisions concerning priorities will more often be made at local level and that psychiatrists will be able to influence them. Each District of a Health Authority area has a Management Team (DMT) with overall responsibility for guiding the Area Health Authority (AHA) in the economic and efficient use of existing resources in the health supporting services in order to meet local needs, and for identifying sections of the services which require expansion, modification or innovation because of unmet need. In order to help them carry out these responsibilities DMTs will appoint ‘Health Care Planning Teams’ (HCPTs) which will consider certain aspects of the services or the needs of any client group thought to require systematic and detailed consideration. The most relevant topics for psychiatrists are mental retardation and adult mental illness, though there will be overlaps with several others, notably geriatrics and child health. Temporary HCPTs may be set up to consider particular issues.