Agenda item

Report of Matt Gilks, Clinical Commissioning Group and Chair of the CAMHS Transformation Board

The Board considered a report seeking endorsement of the refreshed Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Transformation Plan.

‘Future in Mind’ was published in March 2015 by the Department of Health and NHS England and set out a series of proposals to improve outcomes for children and young people with mental health problems, emphasising the need for joined up provision and commissioning.

NHS England agreed that access to the new funds for children and young people’s mental health announced in the Autumn Statement 2014 and Spring Budget 2015, would follow the development of local Transformation Plans to describe how the national ambition could be translated and delivered locally over a period of 5 years.

Coventry and Warwickshire developed a joint plan that was submitted in October 2015, and subsequently assured by NHS England, which secured the release of £878k funding annually for Coventry and Rugby, recurrent for 5 years.

The Board were advised that the Plans had now been in place for two years and each local area was required to refresh their Plan to demonstrate to NHS England the progress being made, that funding was being spent as intended and to provide evidence on how services were being transformed.  The refreshed Coventry and Warwickshire Plan was submitted to NHS England on 3^rd November for assurance and it was noted that the assurance rating from NHS England was still outstanding.  On receipt of the assurance rating, the Plan would be published.

The report set out the seven key strategic priority themes for the Coventry and Warwickshire CAMHS Transformation Plan, along with the challenges the Plan had to address. It also provided an update on progress against each priority during year two of the plan.

For year three, the focus of the Plan for Coventry included:

·  Publication of the plan online, once it had been assured by NHS England.

·  Acceelerating the progress towards achieving a core and stable workforce to deliver core CAMHS and transformation priorities.

·  Achieving and maintaining consistent access and waiting times standards for follow up appointments.

·  Implementation of the revised Autism Spectrum Disorder pathway and delivery of additional assessments

·  Developing a crisis care response and pathways for young people who may require specialist treatment beds as a priority, with the aim of supporting more young people in the community, preventing admission and supporting timely discharge.

The Board sought clarification on the reasons why throughput was measured rather than the outcomes for children and young people with mental health problems, particularly in relation to the impact the service was having on the child’s life.  The Board were assured that outcomes data was an area that CAMHS were looking to take forward within the Plan and had been highlighted as an area to monitor.

RESOLVED that:

1.  The review of the CAMHS Transformation Plan for year two be noted and the plans for year three be endorsed.

2.  It be noted that a refreshed CAMHS Transformation Plan for year three will be brought back to the Health and Wellbeing Board in October 2018.