Agenda item

Sharon Morrow, Chief Operating Officer, Barking and Dagenham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) presented the report and explained that it set out what the CCG needed to do to meet the national standards for Mental Health, which had recently been introduced, and the work that was being done in regards to the new guidance, which included standards for:

·  Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP)

·  Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) 

·  Liaison Psychiatry

·  Eating Disorders.

Sharon advised the Board that CCG had signed up to the B&D Mental Health Crisis Concordat and had put an Action Plan into place and that the three borough CCGs had also agreed a commissioning framework for mental health services from September 2014; the priority areas for which were set out in section 1.3 of the report.  CCG had also undertaken work with NELFT to ensure the standards were met by April 2016. 

Sharon added that positive changes had occurred.  In regards to the existing commitment to increase dementia diagnosis rates, the CCG believe that they had met the 67% target this year.  The IAPT targets had also been achieved for the year and whilst IAPT now had new waiting time standards to achieve, the waiting times in LBBD were good so there was no expectation of problems in achieving the new standard.  The 24/7 cover pilot had also been extended and feedback so far on the pilot had been positive. 

Sharon drew the Board’s attention to the Action Plan, attached as Appendix A to the report, and stressed that there would be a large amount of work for the Mental Health Sub Group in the coming months. 

In response to a question from Cllr Turner, Sharon advised that there was no hard performance target for street triage.  Whilst this was still in the early stages it was having an impact and had reduced the number of detainments under S136 of the Mental Health Act 1983.  The Police agreed that they were finding the pilot very useful as it allowed officers to obtain information quickly and often reduced detainments under S136 and were pleased to see the pilot had been extended for a further three months.  It had the potential to remove unnecessary detentions which was often a default point for the police when people were at crisis.  It was noted that where an individual was not already known to Mental Health Services, street triage would undertake a follow-up of the individual seven days later.  Anne Bristow commented that the place of safety at Goodmayes was exemplary and how decisions could then be made in regards to what support was needed for the individual.  The Police advised that they followed a decision / audit process in their use of S136 detentions; however, due to excellent provision locally police custody was generally used less in the Metropolitan Police area than across the rest of the country.  The Police pointed out there was currently discussion on a possible reduction of the hours that people could be held.  Helen Jenner stressed that the work that LBBD and the Police were doing together to improve outcomes for the individual was a good news story of real worth.

Dr Mohi commented that the IAPT statistics showed that NELFT had been a better performer and work was now being undertaken to educate GPs on what support was available and to assist GPs to improve the quality of care at their surgeries.

The Chair concluded by commenting that there was a need to bring the three strands together.  Once the strategy was in place the Board could then look at the key issues and the data in depth and the role of the Sub Groups in delivery.

The Board:

(i)  Noted the new requirements for CCGs in relation to mental health access and waiting time standards;

(ii)  Commented on the priorities set out in the paper and associated issues; and

(iii)  Approved the Crisis Care Concordat Action Plan at Appendix A to the report.