Agenda item

It was noted that the update received by the Health and Wellbeing Board at its meeting in September had focussed primarily on the Anna Freud report.  It had been recognised that the journey to the current situation had taken too long and that update reports needed to be included on the Board agenda as a regular item.  Concern had been expressed by the Board and the Council's Children, Young People and Learning Policy Overview Committee regarding the lack of continuity to help gauge progress between September and December.  Although partners knew what they wanted to achieve, consideration needed to be given to what action was taken next. 

The report included an implementation plan for children and people's emotional health and mental health transformation and covered the period from 2018/2019 towards 2020.  It was anticipated that the transformation plan would support reducing in-patient care and improve access to evidence based care closer to home through specialist support services such as: the Community Eating Disorders Service; crisis - urgent care, emergency and out of hours service (including self harm); learning disability; and access to waiting times.  Since the out of hours service had been in place, Hillingdon had become one of the best performing areas and it was anticipated that CNWL would save £1m this year which would be reinvested in services in North West London.  It was agreed that the Board would receive a report at its next meeting about how this additional funding could help with the preventative work and that all future CAMHS reports should fully reflect progress made on the commissioning of the new preventative service. 

A lot of work had been undertaken to reduce the waiting time and the 18 week target had now been met.  Training programmes were also being developed and a green paper had been published in the previous week on the role of schools which might prove helpful.  It was noted that schools were an ongoing challenge where greater engagement was needed.  Improvements also needed to be undertaken to present issues back to schools so that they could then take action to address them.

It was noted that the implementation plan had been phased to deal with the crisis and high risk issues first and then the ongoing and preventative work.  Ms Morison advised that she would circulate information about this work to the Board members before the next meeting and would include an update in the report considered by the Board on 6 March 2018.  Preventative work had been undertaken but was still in progress as the figures continued to rise. 

Concern was expressed that the Working Group had not met since September 2017 and that this delay would not help to progress the implementation plan.  It was confirmed that Mr Tom Murphy was the Council's representative on this Group. 

The report noted that a mapping exercise would be undertaken to highlight the current provision and identify any gaps or duplication.  It was suggested that, as three had already been undertaken, an additional mapping exercise would add no value. 

Mr Otter queried: how partners were improving the service; the uptake of mental health first aid training in secondary schools in the Borough; and who would be responsible for the implementation of the Healthy London Programme and where the associated budget would come from.  It was noted that some action that had previously been undertaken had not been effective.  Mr Zaman advised that he would investigate and organise a response to the queries raised by Mr Otter. 

Communication seemed to be at the heart of many of the issues discussed and improvements were needed.  Concern was expressed that, externally, there appeared to be a lack of urgency in the actions taken.  As such, more work needed to be undertaken offline to coordinate the work undertaken and relationships needed to be developed further with schools in the Borough.  It was noted that there were currently three schools that were actively involved with the other schools to provide them with signposts. 

RESOLVED: That the Health and Wellbeing Board:

a)    noted progress to date in achieving the Transformation Plan;

b)   noted and agreed the Implementation Plan for 2018/9 towards 2020; and

c)    noted the refreshed 2017/18 Hillingdon Local Transformation Plan.