Agenda item

The presentation will cover:

·         The Mental health in schools programme

·         Proposed development of a single point of access

·         Demand for services.

RESOLVED that the presentation be noted.

A presentation was made and the slides are available on the council website.

In response to questions from the committee, it was noted:

·         Steps were being taken to ensure the workforce was culturally aware

·         Young people were producing and delivering training that covers religion, gender identity, race etc

·         The Child wellbeing practitions eg the Mental Health Schools Team was attracting a different workforce who may have prior schools experience, but not so much mental health experience. They were being trained on mental health.

·         Acceptance criteria differed according to problem and need level. The threshold was lower criteria for routes involving child wellbeing practitioners and MHST than CAMHS.

·         Young people and stakeholders have been involved in service development.

·         Recruitment continued to be a concern both in Lewisham and NHS-wide. However, crucial roles had been recruited to. To counter some of the recruitment difficulties, the service was trying to find creative solutions, also thinking about early intervention and prevention roles.

·         Members sought an explanation for why the number of young people waiting more than 52 weeks had double on the previous month. This was due to an increase in demand and recruitment difficulties. Work was underway to reduce the number of 52 week waits, as well as those waiting 6 or 3 months for an initial assessment

·         To mitigate the impact of the 52 week wait, a volunteer programme had been implemented to bridge the gap. This meant volunteers would keep in touch and offer assurance to young people on the waiting list, and signpost, where relevant.

·         Mental health support after school was available in the form of KOOTH online counselling, which had been re-procured until 2024, with the option to extend up to 2026. KOOTH provides children and young people aged 10-25 with immediate counselling and is available til 10pm. Work was also underway with children and family centres to build therapeutic offers within community settings.

·         There was a GP pilot in north of borough working with CAMHS service focusing on emotional and mental health.

·         There are lots of services available, but access is but fragmented. Having a single point of access and consistency and common language was key.

·         GPs are the largest source of referrals to CAMHS, followed by schools and social care. The quality of referrals from schools has improved which speeds up the response.

It was MOVED SECONDED and RESOLVED that the meeting be extended beyond 9:30pm to allow for the discussion to conclude.

·         There was some concern that the process for simplifying access to services seemed more complex than the existing arrangements.

·         The MHST statistics skewed towards girls and white pupils. The data sample was small but included 2 all girls schools which could explain the larger number of girls involved.

·         Ethnicity needs some thinking. Taking it seriously want to be thinking how to make sure access those who need it. Involve diverse YP in all service planning.

·         There was sufficient capacity in the area for mental health-related hospital admissions of young people. There was sufficient bed capacity in SE and SW London and had been for some time. However, there may be some specialist areas that cannot be met locally.

·         In response to concerns raised by a committee member about lack of beds locally, the committee heard that young people are never admitted to adult wards. The CAMHS Deputy Director at SLaM NHS Foundation Trust invited members to send him details of individual cases that they had concerns about.

·         Members were concerned that difficulties access GP appointments may be another barrier to young people accessing services, but no change to GP referring patterns had been detected.

·         A walk-in youth clinic was being developed with GP practices.

RESOLVED that the presentation be noted.

The Chair brought the meeting to a close and Councillor Ingleby reminded the committee to consider appointing a climate change champion. The Chair said this would be considered at the next meeting and that there had been no evidence of impact of the champion in the previous year. 

Meeting ended 21:47.