Agenda item

8.1

The Committee received a joint report of the Director of Commissioning, People Services (Sheffield City Council) and the Interim Chief Nurse, Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group, containing an update on the progress and impact of Sheffield’s Local Transformation Plan for Children and Young People’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health.

8.2

In attendance for this item were Bethan Plant (Health Improvement Principal, Public Health Team), Nicola Ennis (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service), Matthew Peers (Commissioning Manager, Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group and Sheffield City Council) and Liz Murch (Associate Director, Community Wellbeing and Mental Health Division, Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust).

8.3

Bethan Plant introduced the report, indicating that the Local Transformation Plan had first been developed in 2015, in response to the publication of Future in Mind (2015), and was a joint initiative between the City Council, Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).  Future in Mind had highlighted five priority areas for the transformation of children and young people’s mental health – Being Accountable and Transparent, Caring for the Most Vulnerable, Developing the Workforce, Early Intervention and Resilience, and Improving Access – and the Plan had been drafted to align to these five areas.  Ms Plant stated that, in addition to Sheffield’s 2015 submission being identified as one of the top 18 in the country by the Education Policy Institute, both the annual refreshes in 2016 and 2017 had received full assurance ratings from NHS England, with the 2017 refresh having being identified as one of the best Local Transformation Plans for prevention and involvement of children and young people.

8.4

Bethan Plant, Nicola Ennis and Liz Murch highlighted those areas of progress for the Plan, from January 2017 to January 2018, with regard to their respective organisations, and Matthew Peers referred to the performance of the CAMHS, specifically regarding statistics on referrals and waiting times, and progress in response to the recommendations of the CAMHS Working Group.

8.5

Members of the Committee raised questions, and the following responses were provided:-

·             A considerable amount of work was undertaken with other agencies, including Multi Agency Support Teams (MAST) and education psychology, to ensure services worked more closely together.  As part of this partnership working, the Healthy Minds Framework had recently been expanded to an additional 45 schools following the initial CAMHS School Link Pilot.  This had resulted in all seven localities having schools which now received Healthy Minds, resulting in 54 schools in total having had Healthy Minds input.

·             Whilst there were a third more boys being treated by CAMHS in Sheffield for eating disorders, compared to the national average, there were more girls than boys being treated in the City for this disorder.

·             It was difficult to determine current times in terms of internal waits in CAMHS on the basis that there were a number of different types of treatment pathways, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).  CAMHS was currently undertaking a performance analysis in order to enable commissioners to set a target for improving internal waits within the Service.  Work was also ongoing to explore how the wider mental health system could support this work by providing further step-down opportunities from the Service.

·             Whilst it was difficult to quantify precisely whether the level of funding required to deal with child suicides was sufficient, there was a requirement to submit performance updates in respect of the Local Transformation Plan to NHS England, and if it was seen that their expected improvements were not being made with regard to the five priority areas set out in the Plan, there was a risk that the relevant funding would not be received in future.  The fact that all targets under the Plan had been met in the last 12 months indicated that sufficient progress had been made in terms of the prevention of child suicide.  However, it was imperative that there was no complacency on the part of the partner organisations involved and, as part of future planning, the partnership was drawing up a menu of additional funding bids to ensure that the necessary plans were in place as and when any additional funding was made available.

·             There were very few cases where children had been assessed by CAMHS, but who had then decided not to take up treatment.  However, efforts were always made to ensure that such children and their families were kept updated in terms of the treatment available if their needs changed, or they changed their mind.

·             Funding in respect of the Plan was provided by NHS England, with assurances having to be provided in terms of any additional funding required.  In addition to this, there were generally national grants from various charities available, which the partnership was mindful of, and needed to be prepared in terms of making any bids for. 

8.6

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)      notes the contents of the report now submitted, together with the information now reported and the responses to the questions raised;

(b)      thanks the representatives from the partner agencies for attending the meeting and responding to the questions raised;

(c)      welcomes the progress made in connection with Sheffield’s Local Transformation Plan over the past 12 months;

(d)      supports Sheffield’s bid to be a trailblazer area for the Green Paper on Children and Young People’s Mental Health;

(e)      gives authority for the Chair to contact or write to Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS England regarding funding; and

(f)       requests that representatives of the partner organisations  attend a meeting of this Committee in approximately 12 months’ time to report back on progress in respect of the areas identified in the 2018 scrutiny report, specifically regarding transition and  waiting times (internal).