LGA Governance


Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Bournemouth International Centre, Exeter Road, Bournemouth, BH2 5BH

Contact: Benn Cain  020 7072 7420 / Email: benn.cain@local.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

17.

Welcome, Apologies & Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed Members to meeting, and noted apologies received (which can be found at appendix A of this note). 

 

No delcarations of interest were made. 

18.

Children and young people's mental health and emotional wellbeing project update pdf icon PDF 85 KB

Minutes:

The Chair opened the meeting by updating Members that the LGA had recently commissioned Isos Partnership to examine and research the systemic and strategic problems and severe lack of funding councils are facing with providing an effective mental health service, given the capacity issues the NHS’ Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) continue to report.  With the ever-growing rates of mental health issues in children and young people, this research aims to highlight these issues and help Members of the LGA’s CYP Board develop an offer to government and local areas for a better offer for residents, after increased investment.

 

The Chair then handed over to Natalie Parish, Director of Isos Partnership.  Natalie stated her fieldwork with eight councils in England had almost concluded, and that her PowerPoint presentation today will deliver the head line messages.  Natalie’s presentation focused on:

 

·    Slide one focused on the four objectives of the research, and certified that this is not just about CAMHS, but also the support local government can provide if fully funded.

 

·    Slide two discussed the challenging national context, the increasing demand and lack of capacity for child and adolescent mental health needs.  Natalie’s research highlighted that less than a third of children and young people are being treated by CAMHS, despite presenting with mental health issues.  Natalie also discussed underfunding and different grant funding streams.  

 

·    Slide three discussed CAMHS & local government expenditure.

 

·    Slide four examined the expenditure per child on preventative measures, which highlighted significant disparity across the country and a postcode lottery.

 

·    Slide five gave an overview of the fieldwork – it addressed the challenging national picture, but certain actions taken at a local level can address some of these issues.  These nine issues detailed were leadership & vision; self-reflective partnership; integrated commissioning; working with young people; promoting good mental health; developing the children’s workforce; embedded CAMHS; supporting families; and creative solutions to managing risk.

 

·    Slide six discussed the importance of leadership & vision; expectations for collaboration; robust governance structures; bold, creative service commissioning; and a diverse provider partnership. 

 

·    Slide seven addressed the keen focus on early intervention and prevention that both elected Members and officers were very keen on pursuing; effectively using the CAMHS as a crisis service.  The slide discussed the concept of including young people in developing service provisions, as well as training young people in peer to peer support. Other aspects discussed were online counselling; mental health promotion programmes in education, youth & children’s centres and perinatal services; normalising common adolescent experiences; ensuring the whole children’s workforce know mental health is everyone’s business; specialist consultations; and mental health support embedded in communities.  Support for the sector’s workforce was also discussed. 

 

·    Slide eight focused on effective specialist support; discussed the idea of an embedded CAMHS, supporting the whole family (including working with parents); creative solutions for those with the highest needs; and redesigning managing risk. 

 

·    Slide nine discussed the persistent challenges: ongoing chronic underfunding; rigid pilots schemes; not measuring outcomes; the transition from children’s to adult social care; and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

19.

Note of last Children & Young People Board meeting pdf icon PDF 172 KB

Minutes:

Members agreed to the note of the last Children & Young People Board meeting, that took place on 26 September 2019.