Agenda item

Presentation from Melanie Coombes, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust

The Board received a presentation from Dr Sharon Binyon and Dr Richard Onyon, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust concerning Adult Mental Health transformation 2019-20 – 2023-24 and Community Mental Health Transformation 2021-22 – 2023-24. 

The presentation provided an overview of Adult Mental Transformation from 2019 to date including the different services and future plans under the following areas:

·  Urgent and Crisis Care Pathway – to be completed by September 2021

·  Suicide Prevention Programme – to be completed by June 2021

·  Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Service – completed March 2021

·  Perinatal

·  Expansion of Early Intervention in Psychosis

·  Community Mental Health Transformation Programme – to commence April 2021.

Detailed information was provided on Community Mental Health Transformation and it was highlighted that substantial funding is being made available to transform and modernise Community Mental Health Services. The aim was to deliver NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) ambitions for new models of integrated primary and community care for adults and older adults with severe and enduring mental illness, as close to home as possible. The LTP described a “new community-based offer [that] will include access  to psychological therapies, improved physical health care, employment  support, personalised and trauma informed care, medicines  management and support for self-harm and coexisting substance use and proactive work to address racial disparities.”

The local new model was being co-produced and developed to underpin bid for transformational funding – a multi-sector team with leads from mental health, social care, VCSE and Lived Experience.

The presentation set out the transformation principles for the new model and provided further information on the additional investment into local community mental health, both as part of Mental Health Investment Standard into baseline funding and additional transformation funding. Estimated funding levels for the next four years were highlighted. The board noted that a proportion of the funding was to be used to support small, micro, grassroots, local community and user-led mental health organisations, and to address inequalities.

Expanding on the local work with the voluntary community sector included:

·  NHS and Local Authority partners to work on how and the timescale to create or expand an existing local VCSE MH organisation alliance model across the STP footprint

·  Articulate how specified amounts of funding would be used to support small, micro, grassroots, local community and user-led mental health organisations to serve their client groups and communities with severe mental health problems and to be sustainable as part of the new model

·  Commit to ringfencing a specified proportion of allocated funding to addressing inequalities in our local population, particularly ethnic inequalities, by contracting with smaller organisations who address the needs of specific demographic groups.

The presentation put forward the proposed phasing for community mental health as follows:

Now

•  Continue to develop and co-produce the future community mental health model

•  Continue to share plans and secure local support

•  Plan for recruitment of new workforce for year 1 – including more Liaison

Workers

Implementation - Year 1

•  Core Offer of “Place Base Mental Health” – expand roll out of primary care mental health liaison workers into PCNs and implement wider model (e.g.  Medicines Management support)

•  Focus on Personality Disorder and Community Rehabilitation pathway

•  Develop collaborative/alliance working model across health/social care/VCSE

Implementation - Year 2

•  Focus on Community Rehabilitation & Eating Disorders pathways

Implementation - Year 3

•  Focus on further expanding Eating Disorders pathway.

The Board were informed that the new primary care mental health liaison workers had been introduced into PCNs, three had been embedded into PCNs in Coventry, South Warwickshire and Warwickshire North and a further liaison worker was being recruited for Rugby. PCNs could refer patients to the Liaison Worker to help support them and work with PCN hubs / MDTs to get the care they need. Liaison workers were working with social prescribers or, where PCNs have bigger  teams, within an MDT that might include for example IAPT, Clinical  Pharmacists, VCSE organisations such as CGL, Mind. Further information was provided on the benefits of having the primary care liaison worker posts and the next steps for recruiting more liaison workers. The presentation concluded with details about the role of the mental health practitioners. It was the intention to have 63 practitioners working across Coventry and Warwickshire by 2023/24.

Members expressed support for this significant investment in mental health services, highlighting the importance of partnership working and providing patients with a holistic experience. The need for a smooth transition for mental health patients moving from children’s support to adult support was emphasised. Members asked about the challenges of being able to increase the workforce including working with the two local universities to be able to recruit graduates to the new posts. Other issues raised included the support for young people including NEETS; the need for more support for school pupils who were experiencing mental health issues as a result of the pandemic; and the requirement to support Looked After Children as young adults.

It was suggested that an item for discussion at a future Board meeting be how the two local universities could contribute to the health and wellbeing agenda, with particular reference to work force planning.

RESOLVED that:

(1)  The content of the presentation concerning the Adult Mental Health transformation including the Community Mental Health transformation be noted.

(2)   Consideration be given to a future Board meeting agenda item on how the two local universities were contributing to the health and wellbeing agenda for the city.