Councillor Mrs Beer (Cabinet Member for Children and Young People), Councillor Mrs Bowyer (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care), Dave McAuley (NEW Devon CCG), Lin Walton (NEW Devon CCG) and Sarah Lees (Public Health) were present for this item.

In response to questions raised by the Committee, it was reported that –

(a)           every secondary school has a mental health lead that is trained and can either signpost or provide help to that young person.  There is a whole school approach with staff trained up to recognise young people with mental health issues, using simple questioning to identify and find the right support.  Also the CAMHS  service now work within the schools;

(b)          the average waiting time had reduced from 20 weeks to an average of 6 weeks for a routine referral.  An area of concern was childhood trauma and there was increasing evidence of perinatal mental health problems for mothers which then affect the babies.  A new service was being implemented in Plymouth providing support and specialist treatment for mothers as well as looking at the impact of emotional wellbeing from an early age;

(c)           no suitable information was available within the overview of risk factors for emotional health and wellbeing as set out within the Local Transformation Plan Refresh because the plan was produced at an STP level and that there would be either no uniform measure or would have data at a Plymouth level that was not publicly available;

(d)          with regard to e-safety they use a whole school approach to emotional, health and wellbeing to develop young people’s skills on how to use social media responsibly.  They use the Five Ways to Wellbeing in all schools, helping young people on how to cope and becoming resilient.  Every child would have the same offer across all schools;

(e)          they do not have any data for Plymouth around young people buying prescription drugs over the internet, however, we do have the Wellbeing Survey within schools which includes what risk taking behaviours young people were involved in.  This issue would need to be tackled at a global level and would be beyond what we could do locally;

(f)            the number of people accessing specialist mental health services and in employment has been static at 6% and the agencies that support people with benefits claims report that there was a big need for advocacy around the review of PIPs;

(g)           the Home Treatment Team were available every day and around the clock to manage the pathways in and out of hospital.  The level of support would be dependent on need;

(h)          a support service was in place to help veterans to find the services they need but this was also reliant on the person identifying themselves as a veteran.

The Committee agreed -

1.         to be provided with a better understanding of the Local Transformation Plan Refresh to include the significance of the plan, what the plan was used for and data available at a Plymouth level rather than STP level.

2.         to be provided with the results of the Wellbeing Survey undertaken in secondary schools to understand how risk taking behaviour is tracked and addressed at a future meeting.

3.         that the Chair on behalf of the Committee write to the 3 MPs to highlight the growing issues of young people accessing and buying prescription drugs over the internet.