Agenda item

To sign off the LTP plan, update on children’s integration.

The Head of Commissioning and Procurement Children's, Family and Education, Executive Director Children Families and Education and Director of Commissioning and Procurement introduced the report and explained that a previous report was presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board in October 2019 to provide an update on the work overseen by the Children and Young People’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health (CYP EW&MH) Partnership Board. The report being presented was an update to provide further information across emotional wellbeing and mental health services for Croydon’s children and young people.

During the introduction of the report, the following points were highlighted:

• Croydon Council had set a number of different actions and priorities in recent years and the aim was to link these in to one clear action plan for all services to work towards.
• The Local Transformation Plan for Children and Young People’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health was annually reviewed and aims were identified to work towards.
• A task and finish group was to be established who would develop a dashboard to monitor and measure data from all providers in the borough.
• The report highlighted the key achievements in 2018/19.
• From February 2020, the single point of contact (SPOC) service would expand to include emotional wellbeing and mental health. Practitioners from (SLaM), specialists from social care, early help, health visiting, education, safeguarding, police, and housing services would be located at Bernard Weatherill House.
• An increase of referrals when the SPOC service was first opened was expected and this information would be collected to review and possible redesign the resources to meet the need of the residents.
• There was an increasing demand for mental health services and it was positive that additional investments were incoming to meet the demand. There was a requirement for the CCG to invest in mental health services annually, but there was a challenge to ensure this investment used wisely.

In response to Board Members, it was explained that Kooth had been commissioned to deliver online counselling across schools in South West London as part of the Mental Health in Schools trailblazer offer. There was an anonymous chat function for young people if they did not want to seek help from a service.

In response to Councillor Hopley the Executive Director – Children, Families & Education confirmed that all schools in Croydon were engaged, including private schools. It was added that not all schools would included in the Trailblazers programme but they would all have an offer to access the resources available to schools; it was assured that there would not be a blanket “one fits all” model.

In response to the Healthwatch representative the officers explained that the voice and experience of the young people should be at the heart of the framework, so the timing of the Healthwatch report regarding mental health was useful. There were ongoing projects as funding had been recently secured but a clear “Croydon one offer”, which would be easy to navigate, needed to be established.

In response to Councillor Campbell it was noted that family therapists would be commissioned and this would be open to foster families; the Head of Commissioning and Procurement Children's, Family and Education agreed to feed further information back to Councillor Campbell regarding this.

Councillor Fitzsimons was present at the meeting as the Lead Member for Scrutiny. He explained to the Board that at the Scrutiny Children & Young People Sub-Committee, on 21 January 2020, it was agreed by Scrutiny Members to look at the fostering services and improve relations. He also noted that Scrutiny Health & Social Care Sub-Committee would be having a joint meeting on 21 April 2020 with Croydon CAMHS and SLaM to review the mental health services in Croydon and invited the Health & Wellbeing Board Members to attend and participate.

During the discussion, the Health & Wellbeing Board Members stated the following:

·       The CVA were supporting emotional wellbeing in schools from the summer term, beginning 17 April 2020 and activities organised by various community groups would start again in the summer holidays.

·       The redesign of the services should work in collaboration with the Trailblazer programme and monitor the impact collectively.

·       The importance of data collection, both qualitative and quantitative, was expressed. An action and outcome plan should be developed, similar to the Homelessness Strategy, to accurately measure the impact. It was important to develop a framework of a full Croydon offer outlining all the services to gain a full understanding.

·       It was recommended that all new information should be sent to the officers who presented the report to ensure it was linked in the new framework.

·       Communication of the services available to residents was key.

·       Foster Carers had noted concern regarding the mental health services available for young people and had requested support with navigating the services; many had expressed concern that if the child were to access these services then they would be removed from the foster carers. It was added that SLaM in Lambeth provided bespoke support for foster carers in terms of training and officers in Croydon were looking at introducing this.

The Chair thanked the officers for their report and requested that a further report be presented at the Health & Wellbeing Board in June 2020 to update Board Members on the progress.

RESOLVED – That the Board agreed to:

1)    Note the additional investment for emotional wellbeing in schools through the Mayor’s Young Londoners Fund;

2)    Note the projects that are developing joint working across the council, CCG and mental health service providers to improve delivery of emotional wellbeing and mental health services;

3)    Note the 2019 Refresh of the Local Transformation Plan for children and young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health as required by NHS England.