Agenda item

It was noted that mental health services in Hillingdon had been a source of concern for some time.  Indeed, Healthwatch Hillingdon had identified a number of shortcomings in its review of the service. 

The success of KOOTH had been encouraging with the take-up figures for teenagers, particularly from minority groups, being positive.  It was noted that Hillingdon had been the second London borough to introduce KOOTH.  The Board was advised that Hillingdon now had one of the largest number of teenagers accessing mental health services but one of the lowest waiting lists (at the Board’s last meeting, the 18 week target had been missed by 0.1%).  This had been supported by the good work being undertaken by mental health champions and schools. 

Concern was expressed that the absence of intervention measures resulted in the need for a referral.  KOOTH was a positive step in terms of intervention but it was queried whether there was sufficient awareness of the service amongst schools and GPs.  Programmes run in schools by Young Healthwatch and Healthwatch Hillingdon about issues such as self harm had helped to identify young people in need and deliver positive outcomes.  The Chairman asked that his thanks be passed to Ms Kim Markham-Jones for her work on this. 

Referral levels were still very high with Hillingdon thought to be second only to Brent.  It was unclear whether high referral rates meant that there was high awareness of the service, and therefore higher take up, or whether need was more prevalent in Hillingdon. 

The mental health needs assessment that was undertaken about five years ago had identified a greater proportion of unmet need in Hillingdon than its statistical neighbours.  The situation was likely to have changed since then.  As such, the Director of Public Health agreed to rerun the analysis so that a comparison could be made. 

RESOLVED:  That the Health and Wellbeing Board noted the progress made:

1.    in the approval and submission of the annual refresh of the Hillingdon Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Local Transformation Plan to NHSE for assurance on 31 October 2018.  The plan would be published in March 2019 when the NHSE assurance process was complete.

2.    in developing the local offer available for CYP and families in ‘Getting Advice’ and ‘Getting Help’ (building resilience and early intervention and prevention), particularly the progress made in establishing the new online counselling service KOOTH which had increased access to emotional wellbeing and mental health services for children in Hillingdon in this quarter.

3.    in the continued engagement of schools via the Thrive Network and by the wellbeing and Mental Health project in schools, which was developing a model of best practice, improving links with locality CAMHS and developing a compendium of resources to support all schools in the Borough.

4.    in the sustained improvement in increased access for CYP in ‘Getting More Help’ and ‘Getting Risk Support’ shown in the performance data from CCG and NHS commissioned services.  The CCG planned to reduce the Hillingdon waiting times for access to CAMHS by successfully obtaining non-recurrent waiting list monies from NHSE to remove 90 children from the Hillingdon CAMHS waiting list by May 2019.

5.    in the continued engagement and consultation with Hillingdon Young Healthwatch in developing local services and their involvement with the CCG as part of the Takeover Bid in developing the model for transition to adult services and the new early intervention and prevention model for emotional wellbeing and mental health.