Agenda and minutes

Members are reminded that they must not participate in the discussion or voting on any matters in which they have a disclosable pecuniary interest and should leave the room prior to the commencement of the debate.

None

To confirm the minutes from the meeting held on 22 October 2020.

To follow

To receive a report from Cathy Riley, Managing Director, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin Care Group, Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust on Children Mental Health Services.

The Managing Director, Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust presented a report to the Committee on the BeeU service commissioned in 2017.  A partnership between CAMHS and Partners. The service provided an Emotional Health and Wellbeing service for children and young people up to 25 years of age.  The Committee heard that new referrals were taken up to the age of 18 and supported up to the age of 25 though service users could transfer to adult services earlier if they wished to do so. The report noted the I-Thrive Model & Partners, a stepped framework which started with self-support, moving to advice guidance and consultation then onto getting help and getting more help.  The report also covered Poly-Pharmacy.  Services had been reviewed in line with NICE guidance, with the creation of a standard operating procedure for repeat prescribing and the setup of a weekly physical health clinic. A case study was presented which highlighted the changes made in prescribing medication, offering behavioural therapies and also the psycho-educational groups for parents.

Members asked a number of questions and received responses as follows:

What services has CAMHS provided, what was the evidence for the service and what was the profile of its need?

Low level support was provided by way of a text service, specialist CAMHS access point, clinical triage, signposting for all age access to adult practitioners and CAMHS specialist professionals and online CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy).  A core part of the workforce for BeeU service was predominantly medical and nursing led to meet prescription demands. This had been changed over the last few years.  Speech & language therapists, occupational therapists, psychological practitioners, CBT therapists and specialist trauma therapists had been employed as part of the workforce and had been linked into improvements.  A wider range of therapies were offered including a number of pathways such as learning disabilities and ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) diagnostic pathway.  These changes were commissioned by the CCG (Clinical Commissioning Groups) and added to the funding to develop the ASD pathway.  The ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) pathway previously had long waiting lists, at the time of the meeting only 29 people were waiting to be seen, a reduction from 100.  Children had been seen and started on a pathway.  The Committee heard that there had been difficulties nationally.

They had created two separate teams who looked at those who had waited over 12 months and also new referrals.  A waiting list initiative was completed in the recommended 6 week time frame. A link with local authority and schools was introduced in Telford so that any schools that had any concerns around child mental health/developmental went to a school panel MDT (Multi-Disciplinary Team).  Additionally, mental health support teams were going into schools to help early identification of those that needed help.  The same format was planned for Shropshire. Members noted that what may work in Telford may not always be appropriate for such a different area as Shropshire.

What communication was there between schools, GPs, parents and other agencies?  ...  view the full minutes text for item JHOSC3

Time did not allow taking the agenda any further.  The remaining items were suspended.

It was noted that the attendees from MPFT would hopefully return participate at the next meeting to continue from where the agenda was halted.