Agenda item

To monitor delivery of the Health & Wellbeing Strategy.

Heema Shukla presented an update on the Health and Wellbeing Strategy progress.

It was noted that the recommendations of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence guidance on self-harm should be monitored by the Children and Young People’s Partnership which was better placed to oversee this work.

It was stressed that Board members should be actively monitoring and actioning elements of the strategy through senior management in their own organisations.

Heema introduced the report on the strategy’s actions, and the Board commented that it would be useful to have a dashboard for the next meeting to track each action, what outcome it’s achieving, and a key contact for each item. It was hoped that this would add clarity to where wherever blockages arose, and what could be done to rectify these issues.

Heema introduced speakers to present on two key projects relating to Priorities 1 and 2

Priority 1: Improve emotional wellbeing in children and young people

Peter Saunders, Senior Psychotherapist in the CAMHS Mental Health Support Team presented on the work of mental health support teams working across Bracknell, particularly focussing on a whole-school approach to pupils’ health and wellbeing.

The initiative of mental health support teams had arisen from the Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision green paper, co-authored by the Department of Health and Department of Education. The aim was to bring CAMHS closer to schools and into the wider community.

The Bracknell Forest mental health support team was supporting 17 schools across Bracknell Forest, on a whole-school approach. A key element of the team’s work was providing consultation space for staff to share concerns about pupils’ mental health or wellbeing, and the need arising from this consultative work had been measured. Arising from the consultative work with staff, it was noted that as well as mental health and wellbeing concerns, schools had brought lots of concerns relating to autism and ADHD, social care issues and behavioural issues which were outside of the remit of the team. There had also been issues with schools not understanding the remit of the team in some instances. Peter gave an overview of some of the schools the team were working with at the moment, which included Kennel Lane and College Hall. There were concerns that the percentage of referrals from some large secondary schools was not proportionate to their size, and it was hoped that referrals from these schools would increase to make best use of the provision.

Peter explained that it had proven difficult to quantify and capture progress against the team’s principles, and a self-evaluation toolkit had been developed for schools to consider their whole-school approach to wellbeing. The team were also holding a meeting in September with the mental health leads in schools to set whole-school approach goals.

A senior mental health lead forum had been established, as inspired by work in Reading. The forum would meet through the school year to share good practice of a whole-school approach, and 80% of Bracknell Forest schools had signed up to the forum.

The team were establishing mental health action groups to hear from parents, carers and pupils to collectively identify whole-school approach goals.

Peter explained that the next priorities for the team were to train staff to deliver PPEP Care evaluations, to promote the team in schools and raise awareness of their work, and to help schools to consider maximising their school environment for wellbeing.

In response to questions, the following points were noted:

·        It was noted that additional funding was coming from NHS England and the Department for Education to support the work of mental health support teams, but the allocation and detail of this was not yet clear.

·        Peter explained that it would be useful for the support teams to have opportunities to engage with governors and school leadership, to ensure that appropriate resources were allocated to mental health and wellbeing in schools.

·        It was stressed that there were many protected populations to consider in schools, and in some instances the school would be a surrogate family to child. It was therefore critical for schools to feel welcoming to pupils, and to place greater significance on emotional needs of pupils with the help of the mental health support team.

Priority 2: Reduce eating disorders and self-harm and improve health and wellbeing of people with mental difficulties

Kathryn MacDermott, Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust presented a piece of work commissioned by Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust to map the needs of the Berkshire population against talking therapies work.

The result of the work was a GIS map of emotional health and wellbeing for adults in Berkshire, which included NHS Talking Therapies and any similar services delivered by the local authority including face-to-face and virtual services. The national trend of lower referral rates in areas with mental health practitioners and social prescribing work was found to generally be true across the Berkshire Primary Care Networks.

The map included layers on the referral pathways, demographics, employment status, deprivation demographics, ethnicity and disabilities so it was possible to gather targeted data from the tool’s layers.

The map tool would be used to inform BHFT service planning to maximise patient benefit, which was particularly key in addressing health inequalities.

In response to questions, the following points were noted:

·        The map was hosted on a paid portal for which BHFT held a few licences, however local authorities would soon be able to submit requests for information to be provided from the map.

·        The tool had already started to influence some service provision, particularly around Talking Therapies, and more would be built into the system to further maximise its capabilities.

·        As a result of the map’s output, the online self-referral process for Talking Therapies had been changed to make the user journey smoother, and more languages had been added to the self-referral process. It was noted that referrals into Talking Therapies generally reflected the ethnicities in each area, however there was some improvements to be made in some areas.

·        Board members asked Kathryn to share the slides and update on the tool as appropriate. (Action: Kathryn MacDermott)