Issue - meetings

To receive and consider the CAMHS Review report.

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Review report was presented by Andy Fitton, Assistant Director of Joint Commissioning

NHS Berkshire West CCG and Kim Wilkins, Senior Specialist Strategy and Commissioning.

Members of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee were in attendance to participate in the discussions of this item.

Andy Fitton stated that the report contained the refreshed Future in Mind Local Transformation Plan (LTP).  This report provided an overview of the achievements of the partnership with providers, the CCG and the local authority, and it also outlined of what still needed to be achieved and what the priorities were.

Andy Fitton highlighted the following points:

·           The establishment of the first local Mental Health Support Team, providing early intervention and support service which was co-located in the community around the schools.  A third of Wokingham Borough was currently covered by this new scheme, it was hoped that in time NHS England would fund more teams for Wokingham;

·           There had been an increase in access to services, both for early intervention stage and for more specialist CAMHS.  Referral rates continued to increase year on year;

·           The training offer was much improved, both for schools and for Children’s Services staff, it was important to be able to identify the need for intervention as early as possible;

·           Seven priorities had been identified across the partnership.  Particular attention was being given to meeting the emotional and mental health needs of Children In Care (CIC);

·           Response to crisis was an area that was continuing to be developed;

·           The development of response to eating disorders was continuing to be developed;

·           During the Covid pandemic there had been a decrease in the number of referrals and an increase in the number of acute cases;

·           Providers had been very quick to offer online solutions during the pandemic.

During the discussion of the item the following comments were made:

·           Councillor Grandison was concerned about the waiting time for the treatment of anxiety and depression (page 19).  He also wanted to know if there was any feedback on the usefulness of Kooth;

·           Andy Fitton stated that the Kooth service had only been running for the last three months, he had not yet received any feedback but would report back when this information was available;

·           Andy Fitton believed that the high waiting time for the treatment of anxiety and depression was likely to be because the demand for the service outstripped the capacity of the service.  He offered to bring more information on this data to the Committee;

·           In relation to the replacement of Willow House, Councillor Mickleburgh asked if the new provision was going to offer the same services and how many young people were placed out of area.  He was also interested to know of data about eating disorders and self-harm and whether the new initiatives were having an impact on those conditions;

·           Andy Fitton stated that Willow House was commissioned by NHS England and he suggested that the Committee ask them to comment on it;

·           Andy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34