Minutes:
The Cabinet Member for Health and Care, Jan Cartman-Frost, Senior Commissioning Manager, Becky Murphy, Commissioning Officer Sarah Tunnicliffe, Commissioning Officer and Nichola Bromage, associate Director for Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism and Children and Young People presented the Good Mental Health in Staffordshire Strategy 2023-28 draft action plan to the Committee.
The Committee were advised that the County Council and the Integrated Care Board had jointly developed a draft action plan to support the delivery of the Good Mental Health in Staffordshire Strategy 2023-28 which was agreed in March 2023. It was reported that the delivery of the strategy over the next five years would be overseen by the Health and Wellbeing Board.
The Committee noted the following comments and responses to questions:
· The Committee welcomed that the strategy and draft action plan has been co-produced by a number of partner organisations.
· The actions, dates and timescales within the action plan were ambitious and had been agreed by the lead organisations. Some of the targets within the action plan were already underway. For the more complex actions, where more work was required, more time had been allocated within the action plan.
· There had been a comprehensive survey sent to all of Staffordshire schools around emotional health and wellbeing which had 350/400 responses. The County Council had worked with the education sector to review the findings from that survey and an action plan had been created to address the gaps and barriers identified within the survey.
· The importance of a person’s Mental Wellbeing, Mental Health and early intervention.
· ICS children and young people’s mental health system improvement board had set up a number of workstream groups to look at particular parts of the action plan.
· The original strategy was developed to reflect that the stratgey would be delivered within existing resources. There was a Mental Health Investment Standard in the NHS which was ring fenced to be spent within Mental Health. There had been opportunities for voluntary services to put forward proposals for contracts with the NHS. There was also a small grants process aimed at smaller voluntary groups. The Committee requested a list of the voluntary sector schemes which had been funded.
· A number of the outcomes within the action plan were dependent on work in communities, in the development of the strategy, communities were keen to be involved and had requested to be kept informed on the development of the strategy.
· Expanding the use of Staffordshire Connects (a one-stop-shop directory service featuring health and care services and events across Staffordshire) to include a section for children and young people.
· Findings from recent engagement and a survey highlighted that people were unaware of the Mental Health services that the voluntary services offer; the action plan looked to address this so that people know where they could access services. There had been focused groups with the voluntary sector organisations which highlighted the range of services that the voluntary services offer.
· There was an ICS Workforce plan to address the workforce issues.
· The Police had been involved in the wider co-production of the Good Mental Health in Staffordshire Stratgey 2023-2028. The National Partnership Agreement: Right Care Right Person approach was being phased in collaboratively between the police and mental health services.
· There were 9 Mental Health Support Teams in Staffordshire with a new team to be set up in January 2024 which would provide 45% coverage over Staffordshire schools, there were plans to increase the number of Mental Health Support Teams within the action plan.
· The Community Mental Health offer had been broadened to ensure that as many people can access that support at the right time. There were a number of Mental Health practitioners (ARRS – Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme) to bridge the gap between primary care and secondary care. This was a part of the General Practice Strategy and the Committee agreed to review community mental health.
· The Good Mental Health in Staffordshire Stratgey 2023-2028 and the action plan should be shared with as many partners as possible.
· There was an outcome within the action plan around equal access which involved health inequalities and people from different ethnic backgrounds. Under the Community Champions Programme, engagement activities had taken place to involve different ethnic backgrounds.
· Public Health had commissioned for a provider for a suicide bereavement service and there was now a Real Time Suspected Suicide Surveillance officer in place.
· The agreed with the actions within the action plan however commented that some of the actions were not SMART targets.
Resolved – That the Committee (a) received, noted and commented on the Good Mental Health in Staffordshire Strategy 2023-2028 draft action plan.
(b) recommended that:
· the Cabinet Member for Health and Care share the Good Mental Health in Staffordshire Strategy 2023-2028 and the action plan with partner organisations when available.
· the Cabinet Member for Health and Care, as part of the consultation on Adult Social Care and Staffordshire Connects, give consideration to expanding the Staffordshire Connects to include a section for children and young people.
(c) receive a list of the voluntary sector schemes which had been funded by the NHS.
(d) schedule in Community Mental Health in the Work Programme for a future meeting.