The panel to review the action plan and recommendations.

Steve Waite, Chief Executive and Dan O’Toole, Director of Finance from Plymouth Community Healthcare (PCH) and Fiona Fleming, Commissioning Manager gave an update to the panel.  The Chair allowed the draft Action plan and Children and Mental Health Service (CAMHS) waiting list update to be tabled at the meeting.

It was reported that an intense amount of work had been undertaken with one part of the CAMHS team and this team had experienced issues with the waiting list times.   The team had worked hard to reduce this and introduced clinics that were now taking place on a Saturday.  It was also reported that the waiting list was monitored on a weekly basis.

In response to questions raised from the panel, it was reported that –

a.             a consultation was taking place to explore the opening of clinics outside of core hours and it was envisaged the Saturday clinics would continue;

b.            all areas of the service were being addressed to create capacity to support young people to ensure that the extra resources put in place to reduce the waiting times would not affect any treatment a young person would receive;

c.             the young people currently on the waiting list had been contacted and limited work had been undertaken with the media to publicise the changes;

d.            a draft communication strategy had been produced to ensure partners and young people were aware of the services available.  The draft strategy would be signed off by the PCH Executive Team on 6 January 2012;

e.            regarding recommendation 9, the panel reported that it was not acceptable to delay counseling services pending the outcome of a tendering;

f.              attendance from Educational Psychologists at Common Assessment Framework meetings were important;

g.             if a young person required further treatment it would be down to the clinical staff and their assessment of the individual;

h.            a meeting had taken place between the Director of Finance, Plymouth Community Healthcare and the Chief Executive of Routeways to review the participation support services for young people using mental health services.  The services currently delivered by Routeways were checked against services that could be delivered in-house.  It was concluded that the services would be more cost effective to be delivered by Routeways.

Agreed that –

1.            the Children and Young People’s Trust Chair to provide an update to the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Panel ensuring that the matter of children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing is being taken seriously;

2.            the panel to receive a further update at its meeting on 1 March 2012 on the recommendations together with the other issues raised today.  Thereafter the recommendations is reviewed by the panel on a 6-monthly basis;

3.            a review is undertaken on other services waiting times;

4.            the communication strategy is forwarded to the Chair of the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Panel;

5.            that a letter is sent to all Social Care staff to inform them of the changes made to the service;

6.            a copy of the report for the Children’s Trust Executive to be sent to the CYP OSP on attendance at CAF meetings.