Agenda item

Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy - Start Well Priority Area

Start Well cover report and Action Plan – to be presented by Si Khan, Business Manager, Health and Wellbeing.

 

The Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2021-2024, Happier, Healthier Lives - a shared plan for Buckinghamshire was approved by the Board at the 18th February 2021 meeting.

 

The Board approved the approach of future meetings being themed against the 3 key priorities identified and agreed in the Strategy – Start Well, Live Well and Age Well.  It was also agreed to have a deep dive on Mental Health, for each of the priority areas (Start Well, Live Well, Age Well) as this was a cross cutting theme identified in the strategy and one of the areas known to have been hugely impacted by the pandemic.

 

The April meeting theme is Start Well and to provide assurance on progress being made against the high-level actions included in table 2 of the strategy, a detailed action plan has been co-developed with partners.

 

The action plan demonstrates how all partners of the Board are committed to delivering against the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy.  

 

Recommendations:

      The Board to note and approve the action plan

      The Board to agree to receive a further update at the October Board meeting

 

Mental Health School Age Children – Deep dive

CAMHS and Buckinghamshire Educational Service -Service Update – to be presented by Sue Hadwin, Head of Service Buckinghamshire CAMHS and Joe Clacey, Medical Lead, CAMHS, Buckinghamshire.

 

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with Children’s Services at Buckinghamshire Council have provided a written report which summarises the current issues CAMHS and the Education Service is seeing in demands in the service and identifies challenges that the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) need to be aware of.

 

Recommendation: It is recommended that HWB note the report.

 

Minutes:

Start Well Action Plan – Si Khan, Business Manager, Health and Wellbeing, advised that it had previously been agreed that future meetings would be themed around the three key priorities; Start Well, Live Well, Age Well, as identified in the HWB Strategy.  It was also agreed that action plans would be used as a framework to provide the Board assurance that actions were identified and progressed by all partners and resulted in better outcomes being achieved for residents. The action plans would be live documents and would be presented to the Board every six months.  S Khan proposed using infographics at the end of year one for each of the priorities to show the progress and highlight the outcomes achieved.

 

The following points were raised in discussion:

 

  • The Chairman summarised that several meetings had taken place and a number of organisations were keen to be involved in the action plan.
  • David Williams, Director of Strategy and Business Development, Buckinghamshire NHS Trust, suggested holding a workshop session for partners.  The following leads were agreed for each priority:

 

§         Start Well – David Williams

§   Live Well – Martin Gallagher, Chief Executive Officer, The Clare Foundation

§         Age Well – Buckinghamshire Council.

 

RESOLVED:   The Health and Wellbeing Board noted and approved the action plan and agreed to receive a further update at the October Board meeting

 

Mental Health School Age Children – Deep Dive Children and Adults Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Buckinghamshire Educational Service - Service Update

The Chairman welcomed Sue Hadwin, Head of Service, Buckinghamshire CAMHS, and Joe Clacey, Medical Lead, CAMHS, Buckinghamshire, to the meeting.  J Clacey advised that the Service was under significant pressure due to an increase in the number and complexity of the referrals, particularly in the areas of eating disorders and young people presenting acutely in crisis.  This had then linked to further difficulties in the availability of inpatient psychiatric beds or specialist residential provisions for children and young people.  Also, long waiting times continued for the diagnosis of Neuro developmental conditions; however, work was ongoing with the commissioners and colleagues in the Buckinghamshire NHS Healthcare Trust (BHT) to resolve the issue. The Service was trying to increase the number of staff in the crisis and eating disorder teams.  The Service had also increased the reach of its mental health support teams in schools to allow greater coverage.  A member of staff was working with the BHT and was based on the paediatric ward to help assess young people who presented.  The Service was also working closely with acute hospital and Children’s Services’ colleagues to improve the assessment and safeguarding process as many of the young people presenting had a combination of mental health conditions and social concerns that required collaborative care planning.  There had always been an acute problem with funding and the recent increase in demand had exacerbated the issue; however, funding had been received to trial key workers for the most complex young people with autism and learning disabilities and was a positive development.

 

The following key points were raised in discussion:

 

  • In response to being asked how much more funding was required and whether there was anything the HWB could do to help; S Hadwin acknowledged that all services needed extra funding and stressed the need to work in partnership to maximise resources.  S Hadwin advised that it would not be possible to recruit enough staff to the workforce even if more funding was available.  The Service was prioritising/moving things around to address the issues.  The key worker project was a partner agency and was meeting the needs and keeping young people out of hospital.  The Service had also been awarded another mental health school team to work in the Chesham area.
  • It was noted that some of the Community Boards were funding mental health first aiders.
  • Dr S Roberts explained that CAMHS was a jointly commissioned service and prioritised mental health across the whole age range.  The Service was mindful that young children needed to ‘start well’ and the action plan needed to include increased support to build emotional resilience and wellbeing.
  • In response to being asked if the funding included a deprivation weighting, Robert Majilton, Deputy Chief Officer, Buckinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), advised that overall, the funding allocations to the CCG were based on indices of need.  There had been several years of expanding capacity in a number of areas, including children’s mental health and eating disorders.  R Majilton stressed the importance of collaborative working and advised that there were ongoing discussions around the immediate operational pressures and future demand/capacity.

 

RESOLVED:  The Health and Wellbeing Board noted the report.

Supporting documents: