Agenda item

Ms H Jones, Head of Commissioning, Mr I Darbyshire, Senior Commissioner, CAMHS, NHS Kent and Medway, and Ms A Merritt, Commissioning Officer, were in attendance for this item.

1.         Ms Jones introduced the report and explained that new arrangements for CAMHS and Emotional Wellbeing services had been put in place following an Ofsted inspection.  Themain aim was to improve early delivery of services closer to where they are needed, including in settings such as schools. Since writing the report, the successful bidder for Community CAMHS services has been confirmed as the Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.  The Emotional Wellbeing service will be delivered by a consortium led by Kent Children’s Fund Network. Both contracts will commence on 1 September 2012.

2.         Ms Jones, Mr Darbyshire and Ms Merritt responded to comments and questions from Members, and the following points were highlighted:-

a)         waiting times for the CAMHS service have, historically, been persistently too long, but the successful contractor has a good performance record and will be set a challenging target of ensuring that all young people referred to the service are assessed within four weeks of referral and start treatment in four to six weeks of referral.  The contract contains clear monitoring mechanisms and levers to ensure that this requirement is complied with;

b)         monitoring will take the form of monthly reports of assessment rates and service delivery, and if performance falls short, remedial action will be prompt.  In the past, KCC and NHS Kent & Medway have not been as effective as they could have been at using the contract levers at their disposal.  Better service delivery has already reduced the number of young people whose problems escalate to the point where they need higher-level services;

c)         previously, schools were involved in CAMHS and Emotional Wellbeing services in a number of ways, and have always been a key link into services, but now their involvement has been formalised.  School staff will receive training to make sure they are equipped to identify early indications of mental health problems, and there will be a consultation and advice line for schools and complementary support to back up Emotional Wellbeing services;

d)         the new contractor will deliver all tiers of CAMHS services, but when young people come to transition into adult services, they might find that they are not eligible for equivalent adult mental health services.  KCC will act as an interface to help the providers to link into adult services; and

e)         the new contracts will start on 1 September 2012, but there will be a transition period as the new contractors deal with some backlog remaining from the previous system.  The new and previous providers will be required to liaise to arrange a handover of work. This handover period will be closely monitored to ensure that transition is as smooth as possible, with no loss of service. 

3.         Mrs Whittle thanked Ms Jones, Mr Darbyshire and Ms Lorraine Goodsell for all their work in preparing the specification for the service and arranging the tendering process.  She added that good monitoring of the new contracts will be vital, as the new contractors will inevitably inherit a backlog of cases. A further report can be made to this Committee in January, at which time it will be possible to see the first indications of the new contractors’ performance.

4.         RESOLVED that the information set out in the report and given in response to comments and questions be noted, with thanks, and a further update report be considered at this Committee’s January meeting.