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Bank holiday information for our services, including opening times and emergency contacts. All recycling collections will take place on the usual days.

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 5, Guildhall, Swansea. View directions

Contact: Liz Jordan 01792 637314 

Items
No. Item

1.

Disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interest

Minutes:

No disclosures of interest were made.

2.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Inquiry follow up on progress

Invited to discuss progress are:

Councillor Elliott King, Cabinet Member - Children Services

Councillor Mark Child, Cabinet Member - Care, Health and Ageing Well

Dave Howes, Director of Social Services

Julie Thomas, Head of Child and Family Services

Sian Harrop-Griffiths, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board

Joanne Abbott-Davies, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board

 

Paper to follow:

·       Updated Action Plan from Cabinet Member

 

 

 

Other papers available at the following link: http://democracy.swansea.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=598&MId=7737&Ver=4&LLL=-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minutes:

Cllr Elliott King, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Julie Thomas, Head of Child and Family Services and Joanne Abbott-Davies, Sian Harrop-Griffiths and Isobel Davey of Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABMU) attended the meeting to present the impact/follow up report. 

 

The following issues were discussed:

 

·       The Service is driving forward a prevention approach and is working on the offer for those children who do not quite meet the threshold and are falling through the gaps.  They are aware of the need for a continuum of support and the need to see over time if they are making a difference.  Need to look at how this can be monitored.

·       ABMU feel that they and the three local authorities are now working together better and are having conversations about how they can change things.

·       As a result of recommendations from scrutiny ABMU have changed some of their commissioning arrangements.

·       The target for CAMHS urgent cases being seen in 24 hours is 100% and ABMU is hitting this

·       An explanation of how the Choice and Partnership Approach works was given to the Panel.  This initiative deals with some of the issues raised by the Panel

·       The Panel expressed concern about the annual Integrated Care Fund which comes from Welsh Government to regional partnership boards.  Haven’t received confirmation of what the new allocation will be when Bridgend leaves ABMU.

·       The Scrutiny Inquiry had identified that people found it difficult to access CAMHS.  There were complaints from parents about the forms that had to be completed and that the timeline could be up to a year.  Panel informed that the process has been simplified, forms have been reviewed with schools and schools can now speak to a member of the Neurodevelopment Disorders (NDD) team if they have concerns.

·       Parents only used to be able to get a referral to CAMHS through the school. A mechanism has been put in place so that if parents cannot get a referral through the school they can contact the NDD team direct if they think they are being blocked by the school.

·       There are now parents and representatives of the Third Sector sitting on all groups.  A workshop was held on NDD and 30 parents participated.  The information gathered from this workshop was used to set up the NDD service.

 

 

3.

Panel to discuss thoughts on progress and agree feedback

Panel discuss their thoughts on progress and agree the feedback they wish to make to the Cabinet Member and Scrutiny Programme Committee via their letter from the Convener.

 

 

Minutes:

The Panel discussed progress and made the following conclusions:

 

·       Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services are in a much better place than when the Panel started the Inquiry. The Panel congratulates everyone involved.

·       There are now well established arrangements in place to drive improvement forward in this area. 

·       Progress has been made on most of the recommendations in the action plan.   However there is still a long way to go to fully achieve all of the recommendations.

·       The Panel has concluded it’s monitoring of CAMHS, but monitoring of performance will continue via the Child and Family Services Scrutiny Performance Panel who are to receive regular progress updates.

 

 

Following on from this meeting:

 

a)    A letter will be written from the Convener of the Panel to the Cabinet Member summarising the discussion and outlining the Panel’s thoughts and recommendations.

b)    Any outstanding issues relating to this piece of work will be followed up via the Child and Family Services Scrutiny Performance Panel.

Letter to Cabinet Member (21 November 2018 meeting) pdf icon PDF 279 KB

Response from Cabinet Member (21 November 2018) pdf icon PDF 249 KB