Agenda item

The Board discussed the report, which provided an update on the Transformation Plan and its implementation, 

Work is progressing to implement of the Transformation Plan. Whilst additional resources had been provided for the Transformation Plan, those resources had come with provision requirements in regard to community services for eating disorders. The BHR CCGs had also been successful in securing non-recurrent resource, through the emergency and urgent care vanguard programme, to develop the crisis prevention pathway for children and young people.  Further guidance on perinatal mental health is expected in 2016/17 which should attract additional funding. 

Delivery of the Transformation Plan would need partner support.  The governance process for this would be driven and monitored by the Children and Maternity Sub-Group.

One of the main threads for the Transformation Programme is shifting the focus from crisis support to early intervention.  This would have the benefit of stopping young people either going into crisis or their mental health deteriorating and thus would allow them to participate more within their educational, social and home settings.  Support for families would also be important to increase treatment success rates. 

In response to a question from Cllr Carpenter about Tier 4 service treatment provision being unavailable at Brookside, Melody Williams, Integrated Care Director (Barking and Dagenham) NELFT, advised NELFT felt that all the actions required were now in place and negotiations were being held with NHS England, the commissioner of the service, with the aim of Brookside reopening in the imminent future.  A request was made for the report on Brookside, presented to LBBD Health and Adult Services Select Committee (HASSC) on 19 July 2016, to be circulated to the Board for information.

The Board was advised that the ‘Thrive’ method was having a significant positive impact in Tier 1 and 2 treatments; however, there was currently no home treatment pathway model in the UK for Tier 3 treatment service.  A new model had now been developed, which included a home treatment service.  The new approach had been proposed to NHS England, for which their consent to continue was awaited.  Ceri Jacobs was asked to follow-up this issue with her colleagues. 

In response to a question from Cllr Carpenter it was clarified that the current community eating disorder service was an all age service.  Investment in the service has been made to develop the model for children and young people, in recognition of their special and extra needs.

Helen Jenner, Corporate Director of Children’s Services, suggested that urgent contact would need to be made with the schools governing bodies if a named individual was needed in schools to lead on mental health issues by September. 

Helen also pointed out that there were already some schemes in place, which need to be mapped against the Plan.

The presence of CAMHS in the LBBD Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) was requested. 

Cllr Oluwole asked for clarification on the support for the family.  Melody advised that CAMHS would be working with the CCG to obtain additional funding to support the family at the point of crisis, which was often different in children and young people to that for adults.  The aim was to have a structured intervention to work towards reducing or removing the need for admittance to a mental health support unit.

Sarah Baker, Independent Chair of Safeguarding Boards, advised that the Children’s Commissioner’s Lightening Review on the Access to Child and Adolescent Mental Services in May 2016 was not referenced in the reports, as it had been published after the Transformation Plan was reviewed; however, there was a need to cross reference those findings with the Plan.

Cllr Turner pointed out that the data streams also needed to be checked, for example the referral data for looked after children, as the data would be important later in order to be able to monitor and assess if the Plan and any new practices were working as expected. 

Cllr Turner raised the issue of variety of available treatments compared to inner London Boroughs.  Melody advised that the focus was now moving towards outcomes.  In addition, the Child Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC) looked at the range and access to the facilities that were provided and the local provision for LBBD residents had been benchmarked favourable against other areas. 

The Chair reiterated to Partners that the Council had concerns regarding the three borough approach, as each borough had its own individual challenges and needs.  Progress would be closely monitored to make sure that LBBD residents were not getting a lesser quality service.

The Board:

(i)  Noted the update on the Transformation Plan;

(ii)  Requested the Director of Commissioning Operations for North Central and East London to remind her NHS England colleagues that a response was still awaited from NHS England to NELFT’s proposals around a new model home treatment pathway for Tier 3 and 4 patients;

(iii)  Noted that if schools were being expected to provide a named responsible individual they would need to contact quickly the governing body of each school;

(iv)  Would wish to see CAMHS presence in the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) again; and

(v)  Noted that a full report would be presented in the autumn, which would cover the issues raised by the Board.