Agenda item

The Committee considered the report on the current position of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). 

Joan Veysey, Deputy COO at the Hillingdon Clinical Commissioning Group (HCCG), addressed the meeting. She provided the Committee with a handout entitled 'Hillingdon's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Policy Overview Committee Performance' and in summary, made the following points:

·         Jane Hainstock has been appointed as a substantive member of staff.

·         Areas of concerns include waiting times and access. Central northwest London (CNWL) is working on a number of transformation projects such as brief treatment and intervention, redesign of core CAMHS, T4 New Models of care, development of a 24/7 intensive community support service and piloting child wellbeing practitioners.

·         The backlog has been reduced and planned targets have been achieved. NHS England has provided Hillingdon CCG with £64, 00 in the first tranche of funding to be released and further £64, 00 is the second tranche in 17/18.

·         It was predicted that the waiting times to meet the 18 week target would be met by November 2017.

·         The exception report gave reassurance that risks were being mitigated by ongoing monitoring and the additional funding being received by NHS England to deal with the demand and capacity issues.

·         29 out of 136 referrals were from Hillingdon in relation to Eating disorders service. Soem of the interventions offered were family based intervention (anorexia) and systemic family therapy. Individual goals were set with families and outcomes from evaluation included reduction in tier 4 admission to ED units.

·         In relation to out of hours referrals for Children and Yong People, there were 653 referrals to the CNWL service from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2016 (referrals reicved and seen) . The number of referrals in the yeat is 716.Since July 2017 the service has changed its name to the crisis and liaison service which operates 24/7.

·         There are 3 Hillingdon CYP in tier 4 beds which is a reduction from 15/16 and 16/17 figures. There is an also a reduction in the number of people placed many miles from home from 40% to 17%.

The Chairman welcomed the representatives from CAMHS however expressed that there had been some dissatisfaction with the service in the past. Although there appeared to be progress, the Committee needed reassurance that action was being undertaken in order to support residents and non residents.

The Committee was of the view that this area involved high risk patients and it was crucial that the service was a in strong position to assess and support these children who were often in a lot of distress. If children were not accessed form an early stage, the mental health concerns would mostly likely deteriorate.

The Committee noted the points in that some Borughs received more funding which was why some waiting times were more reduced in comparison with Hilingson. Children waiting times of 4.5 months - 18 weeks was a long time. The Committee was told that the type of intervention varied and to manage this waiting tiem issues children were being priotisied in terms of what issues they had. For examples chidren with anxiety can be priotitised as they may not be able to function at school. Generally the service was changing thw way tit worked with families whilst taking into account national evidence.

National evidence demonstrated that males were less willing to talk and seek help whilst woman felt more comfortable about approaching for help.

The Committee was informed that implementing an Integrated, Child & Adolsent Menthal Health Pathway without tiers (THRIVE model), ongoing co-production with children, young people, schools and families, a greater focus on early intervention and prevention  - through advice and support  and establishing peer support pogreammes and commissioning evidence based service responses and testing their efficiency were the ways that were going to be used to improve outcomes for children and young people in Hilligndon.

Priorities for 2017 - 2019 included early intervention, range of practitioner offering advice and support, core training intervention, clear information and signposting services and a cpore point of referral for specialist CAMHSand other specialist services.

RESOLVED -

1.    That the representatives from CAMHS be thanked for their attendance;

2.    Members should email their questions to Democratic Services who will send them to representatives for answers; and

3.    That a CAMHS update be placed on the work programme for March 2018.