Agenda item

Mental Health Services for Children and Young People

Minutes:

The Committee gave consideration to a report of the Interim Specialist Commissioner for Children’s Clinical and Public Health, Trafford Council, which provided an update on Trafford’s mental health and wellbeing services and the wider offer for children and young people. The report also informed of how services were being transformed in line with the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health and THRIVE framework, the integrated, person centred and needs led approach to mental health services for children, young people and their families, with a strong emphasis on early intervention.    

 

The author of the report, accompanied by the Associate Director of Primary Care, Trafford Clinical Commissioning Group, attended the meeting to present the information and address the enquiries of the Committee.

 

Officers reported that the Local Transformation plan, which outlined, yearly, the current offer and the planned changes for mental health services in Trafford, had received a green rating by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).

Data on access services, collated manually via the Strategic Data Collection Service, showed that Trafford exceeded the national target. The officers illustrated one of the components of the Greater Manchester Crisis Pathway, which operated at the Accident and Emergency, for those who experienced a mental health crisis, and it offered 24 hour support via the All Age Mental Health Liaison Services.

 

The officers went on to report that a comprehensive training programme had been in place since 2017 to address the mental health skills gap of Trafford professionals. A Mental Health First Aid Training was currently being provided to school staff, school nurses, Early Help Hub staff, GPs, locality teams and voluntary sector. In addition to this, a Greater Manchester Training Programme was also in place to develop professionals’ knowledge about the Transforming Care agenda and iTHRIVE. 

 

With regard to specialist support services, Officers mentioned that Healthy Young Minds, formerly Children and Adolescents Mental Health Services (CAMHS) had seen a significant increase in referrals which had had an impact on users’ waiting times. Furthermore, unprecedented high sickness levels and vacancies within the services had also contributed to very long waiting times. The same issues were experienced at national level. Eating Disorders and Perinatal/Parent and Infant Mental Health had received a very positive feedback for achieving, the former, 100% targets on access and waiting times and the latter, “Rare Jewels” recognition by the Parent Infant Partnership UK for parent-infant provision.

 

The officers informed the Committee of the work plan for 2019/20 and the key pieces of work such as the Autism and Communication Pathway which would be accepting referrals from September 2019 and the Single Point of Access which would provide one route for children and young people into mental health services to reduce the amount of inappropriate referrals and to ensure that children did not have to tell their stories multiple times.

 

The Committee sought clarification on whether it would be difficult to fill the vacancies in Mental Health services. It was explained that it was not possible to know it until recruitment started. Members commended the work of Kooth and asked how it was advertised. It was explained that it was mainly promoted via Instagram and the Trafford Service Directory; only children from Trafford could access this service. Members went on to query service users’ satisfaction and how this was rated. It was explained that, as part of the Local Transformation Plan, You Said, We Did, the outcome of the consultation with young people was published; Kooth had been commissioned as a result of this survey. Methods to publicise services were discussed; these were responsibility of the providers. Members questioned what type of support was in place for those members of staff who suffered from mental health issues. It was explained that supporting mechanisms for staff would be put in place directly by service providers. Members asked how the perinatal service was advertised and whether it was also open to parents with toddlers. It was explained that the service was provided at the Life Centre in Sale and it was advertised through the health visitors to parents with infants up to the age of 1; parents with young children were also welcome. Members also queried about support for parents and carers of children and young people with an Autism Spectrum diagnosis or a severe learning disability. It was explained that the Riding the Rapids training was in place as well as a parents workshop facilitated by a Speech and Language Therapist. However, commissioners were aware that more support was necessary.

 

RESOLVED that the content of the report be noted.

Supporting documents: