[Margaret Courts,Children’s Commissioning Manager,Wolverhampton CCG, to present report  detailing a refresh of the CAMHS Local Transformation Plan]

Margaret Court, Children’s Commissioning Manager, presented the CAMHS Transformation Plan. The Children’s Commissioning Manager explained the background to the development of the plan and the progress made against the original performance targets. The plans were submitted to NHS England to show progress made and was approved.

The Children’s Commissioning Manager commented that the figures detailed in para 3.2 were incorrect and a revised table would be sent to members.

The Children’s Commissioning Manager explained how funding detailed in para 3.3 of the report would be used improve the access young people should mental health support services.

The panel thanked the Children’s Commissioning Manager for the presentation

The panel discussed the digital counselling offer. The Children’s Commissioning Manager explained that this offer is currently available in Dudley, Walsall and Sandwell and the plan is to introduce the scheme in Wolverhampton. The Children’s Commissioning Manager advised the panel that the £262,500 funding will only be used for specific training of staff and not for the commissioning of services. The funding of £197,000 has not been committed and will be held for 2020/21 to respond to changes in needs of young people in the future – the idea is that the fund will be used to help meet the mental health needs of young people.

The panel queried the existence and use of research about the impact of bullying on mental health when developing programmes. The Children’s Commissioning Manager commented on the important role of schools in meeting their responsibilities for pastoral care. The panel discussed the need for schools to improve the quality of care to young people and the high rates of suicide and self-harm among young people. The panel discussed the work of the Suicide Prevention Stakeholder Forum which had looked at the issue of provision of support to young people with mental health issues and queried the role of schools.

The Children’s Commissioning Manager advised the panel that the schools had become better at dealing with mental health issues but accepted there was level of inequality in support available across schools. The Children’s Commissioning Manager commented on the support provided by the street triage scheme and the plans to roll out the scheme city wide. The Children’s Commissioning Manager commented on the work being done in Sandwell MBC with schools and the charter scheme it had introduced as evidence of the quality of mental health support. The Children’s Commissioning Manager advised by the panel that there are early discussions about doing something similar in Wolverhampton and improving the quality of crisis care across the Black Country Region – a new service specification is being drafted which is aimed at integrating the street triage service. Sandwell has invested a lot if funding to bring its crisis care support up to what is considered to be the gold standard. The Children’s Commissioning Manager added Wolverhampton does not have high numbers of young people needing specialist treatment.

The panel discussed the merger of mental health providers and the risk that quality of service will be based on the lowest common denominator in order to plan services.

Dr Hibbs commented on the preventative work being on the Black Country CAMHS strategy and reassured the panel of the work of the WCCG to improve the current offer.

The panel queried the issue of evidence of long waiting times between a mental health assessment and statement for young people needing more specialist support. Dr Hibbs advised the panel of the work done directly with doctors to improve the situation – there are plans to launch a new strategy in February 2018. The strategy will look at gender issues and their different needs. The Children’s Commissioning Manager added this is an area of concern for the service about lengthy waiting times and the need for provision between low level support and specialist support - the aim would be to provide a referral to a service within a week. The Children’s Commissioning Manager added that there is a need to review the current provision. The panel discussed concerns about the provision of support in schools to young people who are victims of bullying and the argued for the need for the current offer to be monitored. The Children’s Commissioning Manager responded that work is being done with schools and colleges to improve the situation and co-ordination of services and staff are committed to make a positive difference to young people needing support. The panel agreed to recievd an update on the progress against action plan key performance indicators for the CAMHS transformation plan.

The panel thanked the Children’s Commissioning Manager for her presentation.

Resolved:

The Children’s Commissioning Manager to present update report on progress to the panel meeting on 15 November 2018.