Decision details

To outline the findings of the Partnerships Review Committee with regard to children and adolescent mental health services. To consider and agree the recommendations to take forward.

Cabinet

1.               received and endorsed the following recommendations from the Partnerships Review Committee:

(a)             for South Cambridgeshire District Council to use proactively its networks and facilitation skills to enable appropriately timed meetings between key partners to:

·        help develop relationships and trust between professionals working to support children and young people who are experiencing poor mental health, and

·        enable strong partnerships resulting in a better support offer for children and young people within a school setting.

(b)             that the Council:

·        writes to NHS England expressing concern in relation to the targets they set for mental health crisis care, which results in local budgets being spent once a crisis has occurred rather than preventing the crisis in the first place, and

·        instructs officers to actively pursue, through the Combined Authority discussions, a freedom and flexibility to agree locally the split between spend on preventative care and crisis care in relation to mental health;

(c)             that the Council uses its position with the Combined Authority, local Members of Parliament and on key local partnerships to influence decisions that affect local and national spend on mental health services so that more is done to support children and young people, who are experiencing poor mental health so that they hopefully do not reach crisis;

(d)             That the Council, through the Corporate Plan, prioritises supporting young people who are experiencing poor mental health, especially during times of crisis;

2.               Deferred making a decision in respect of the Partnerships Review Committee’s fifth recommendation, set out in paragraph 23 of the report; and

3.               Agreed to review progress in 12 months’ time.