Agenda item

Report of the Head of Business and Transformation, Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust

The Board considered a briefing note and presentation of representatives of Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust, which provided an update on the Adult Community Mental Health Transformation.

The NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) made a commitment to expanding services for people experiencing mental health illness.  Following the investment into Community Mental Health Services, the impact meant:

• Individuals would have access to mental health support from a wider network of organisations all working together, in a truly integrated and collaborative culture.
• New care models had been co-produced.
• Increasing access to psychological therapies.
• Improving physical healthcare
• Addressing the holistic needs of the whole person.

The new approach enabled people to take an active role in their care planning and delivery, promoting greater choice and control over their own health and wellbeing.

The commitment of the Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership Trust, was that people would not repeat or re-tell their story or have multiple assessments and led by a trauma-informed approach.

The impact/benefits would be:

• Better access to more people and a wider section of the population.
• Expert multi-disciplinary led assessment and interventions
• Greater geographical reach, to offer service users and their family’s choice prior to admission and better access to service which bring care closer to home.
• Closer links with the community and localities, and working in partnership with local voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) and Partner agencies to meet the holistic needs of the local population.
• More responsive, preventing people reaching a mental health crisis and needing admission to hospital.  Patients with the most urgent needs could be provided with face to face support within 4 hours if needed.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Services, Councillor L Bigham, welcomed the transformation and the intent to make things better for people through partnership, centring on the person, not the symptoms.

The Cabinet Member for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing, Councillor K Caan, welcomed the changes in the service, how it would uplift communities and how, through the power of partnership working, psychological therapies suited to the individual was now increasing.

Members of the Scrutiny Board, having considered the content of the briefing note and presentation, asked questions and received information from officers on the following matters:

• To ensure the service was resilient to demand, the following measures had been implemented:
  • the community offer had been enhanced with new pathways available. 
  • Psychological interventions now started at primary care level and there was a new offer around complex need. 
  • New pathways focused on core community teams with integrated ways of working, a fact model allowing a quick response and embedded group interventions. 
  • Transformation was continuous, responding to people’s needs, but focusing on integration and a seamless flow for patients accessing services.
• Access to intervention was a huge focus, and the move from an 18 week referral to a 4 week wait to referral to treatment target was underway meaning a significant difference to a person accessing services.
• Transformation of the pathways had released capacity.  Additional monies had been forthcoming, resulting in additional staff being employed and within the Council’s Social Care department, 10 new members of staff had been employed to help to support needs.
• Feedback had been sought from patients throughout their transformation journey. Experts by experience had been used to improve provision of feedback.
• Changes had been made to the way people access services with the introduction of 111 for referrals.
• There was a commitment across the partner organisations to ensure services were culturally competent.
• Working from deprivation indexes, the most deprived wards in the city were targeted to ensure there was more provision available and ensuring translators were available and being culturally sensitive and competent.
• Responding to public safety was everyone’s responsibility and a new pathway was available through the forensic services and as part of that protection was in place working closely with the police and probation service.  Right Care Right Person was also in place, working in partnership with the West Midlands Police Service.
• Expanded community teams were temporarily occupying the former Fennel Day Hospital building.

The Board requested the following information:

• A map of where the mental health support services in Coventry were based.

RESOLVED that the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board (5):

1)  Note the content of the report and the steps being taken to continually strengthen access to community mental health support for Adults and Older Adults, across Coventry.

2)  Support the recommendations that the pre-existing day service units are permanently closed as they represent a duplication of services now delivered in alternative ways.

3)  Re-word the mood difficulty terminology on the ‘National Ask’ slide of the presentation.

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