Agenda item

11.40 am

To receive a focussed progress update and assurance further to the Committee’s meeting on 10 March 2022.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to acknowledge the engagement that has been undertaken with children and young people and parents and carers to shape the outputs of the Emotional Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and acknowledge the key milestones to publishing and implementing the strategy.

The Chair invited Councillor Liz Brighouse (Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Young People’s Services), Kevin Gordon (Director of Children Services), and Caroline Kelly (Lead Commissioner – Start Well) to take the Committee through the report.

These points were highlighted during the debate:

·       Members of the Committee welcomed collaborative work between Children Services and Public Health Team, including engagement of wider stakeholders’ groups, to conduct a strong evidence-based approach in creating a list of suggestions for young people, and their parents, and ask them for a feedback both positive and negative, and highlight any areas for improvement.

·       A single point of access would not be restricted just for CAMHS; it would be a wider single point of access across Children Services.  This single point of access would be available to a range of services and not be limited just for mental health services.

·       Children Services would anticipate that extended elements of basic Mental Health First Aid training would be part of the core curriculum for all school staff and support services which go into school in order to offer support to children no matter what setting they were working in.

·       In terms of anonymous online platforms that children and young people had asked for - this was an ongoing work in progress which had been discussed with health partners and which would require looking at further opportunities for funding this type of service.

·       Transition was very important and children and young people felt there was a need for the 16-25 transition service; however, not many young people knew about it and they have felt this was not very well promoted. For instance, a young person who had recently turned 18 was not eligible for adult mental health services yet in a need for this service.  There was a need to continue to fund and promote to ensure all those being discharged from CAMHS were offered this service if they had an ongoing mental health condition.

·       There was also a need to recognise a transition from primary to secondary school, and help children adjust to new environment and new ways of schooling, such as moving from class to class instead of staying in one class throughout school hours.

·       The Committee felt that, following the pandemic, an increased number of children and young people needed support with their emotional wellbeing.  The Committee supported an initiative to seek more funding for necessary resources.  Services and support should be evidence-based, adapted to be welcoming and appropriate to support a wide range of needs, including children and young people who were neuro divergent. Language and terminology could be important part when trying to reduce stigma and increase engagement (i.e. use terms like ‘wellbeing’ over ‘mental health’.

·       The Committee welcomed the timeline of the key milestones for finalising the strategy and action plan and requested progress update report for September 2023.

·       The Chair summed up the debate by saying that transitions were crucial for at risk children, and they way how those transitions were implemented was vital in terms of working with parents/carers of the children at risk.  The Chair also stressed the importance of systemic approach in terms of access to good support for children and their parents/carers which would de-stigmatise the whole notion of mental health stigma.  The Chair, on behalf of the Committee, pleaded for more resources for the programme to help vulnerable children in terms of their emotional wellbeing, and in reaching out to champions of good practice within the area.  

It was RESOLVED that the Committee acknowledge the engagement that had been undertaken with children and young people, parents and carers to shape the outputs of the Emotional Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and also acknowledged the key milestones to publishing and implementing the strategy.

It was also RESOLVED that the Committee agreed with a need for additional resources for the provision of Emotional Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy for the benefit of children, and for the Committee to receive an update on the progress in September 2023.