Agenda item

11:45

Sarah Breton, Lead Commissioner, Children, Young People and Maternity Services, and Pauline Scully, Service Director, Oxford Health, will present to the Committee on the current service and its re-commissioning plans. A report is attached at JHO8.

Sarah Breton, Lead Commissioner, Children, Young People & Maternity Services OCCG/OCC; Donna Clarke, Head of Community Child & Mental Health Services (CAMHS), Oxford Health; Sarah Ainsley, Children, Young People & Families, OCC and Dr Jonathan McWilliam, Director of Public Health, OCC gave a presentation on the current service and its re-commissioning plans.

The Committee had before them a briefing on the current service its plans for the future(JHO8).

When questioned about why there had been a large increase in referrals last year to CAMHS, Donna Clarke replied that the service had seen a growing number of referrals both locally and nationally. Families could now self - refer and also self - refer back into the service. The recession and consequent strains on the family unit was also a factor and the service was also seeing people with less complex issues than previously, for example, with anxiety. Dr McWilliam and Sarah Ainsley added that the ability to understand and diagnose was better in today’s society. Also the public were becoming more aware of the issues associated with abuse and more parents and children were coming forward. Some seek early assistance, others will seek higher level services.

Sarah Breton stated that the pressures on the service were not due to disinvestment in the last 5 years, but were as a result of the pressures in meeting rising demand. She stressed that Oxfordshire ran a good service. Donna Clarke pointed out that in Oxfordshire 100% of emergency referrals were seen on the same day and overall, 73%of young people were being seen within 12 weeks. This was broken down to 50% of young people requiring a Tier 2 service and 23% requiring a Tier 3 or more. Specialist cases were being seen within 12 weeks.

Following a query about the availability of in-county beds for children with a learning disability, Sarah Ainsley stated that the lack of in-patient beds within the county was an issue and there was a need to create more specialist provision in the county for children with a learning disability at transition age, as they tended to stay in adolescence for longer and needed more assistance over a longer period. Sarah Breton pointed out that an-patient bed was the last resort and that Oxfordshire ensured that all the community services were in place, so that people could be cared for in the home. To this end it was incumbent on practitioners to ensure that the correct services/resources were available at the same time. The current consultation in adult mental health services (the Big Plan) was addressing the issues with transition from childhood into adulthood. In addition, Children & Families, in 2014 had  had made significant changes in the way the service managed children with a disability, introducing a transition Plan, together with a single Health & Education Plan to ease them over the transition.

Sarah Ainsley, in response to a question regarding looked after children with mental health problems, reported that a significant amount of work was being done with the Children’s Programme Board to put in place good placements with foster families. Also, good support was available from Oxford Health focusing on outreach teams giving sustained wrap around care to young people. Referrals could be made by social workers, GPs and schools. With regard to children in custody, Donna Parke stated that Oxford Health had been just been successful in initiating a liaison diversion scheme whereby  children and adults with mental health problems in police stations would be assessed. In addition, there is a forensic CAMHS team, which covers Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire works with people on the edge of the system.

The Committee AGREED to request the officers write to NHS England expressing concern about the lack of in-patient beds within the county.