The care planning process can provide meaningful therapeutic engagement with service users, and the concept of service users being collaborators in their care plans is central to best practice. However, it has been suggested that, in practice, care planning is largely a ‘paper exercise’ that is usually only performed by nurses, with service users often excluded from the process. This article discusses the development and implementation of a service improvement initiative – the Four Core Care Plans – which aimed to increase service user involvement in care planning and enable the multidisciplinary team to contribute to the process. It also details the organisational outcomes that were identified after the implementation of the Four Core Care Plans across a large independent mental health organisation.