Agenda item

The Panel received a presentation on adult mental health from Nadia Barakat of the Frimley Collaborative Partnership of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), Seb Byrne of SBC/Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (BHFT) and Susanna Yeoman of BHFT.

The presentation covered community mental health transformation, Mental Health Integrated Community Service (MHICs), the links to the NHS Long Term Plan, Slough local offer and the impacts of Covid-19.  NHS England had awarded £5.2m to Frimley Health & Care ICS to drive the transformation of community mental health services through the MHICs and the services would be available in eight Primary Care Networks by the end of 2020/21.  Slough LOCC PCN (Langley, Orchard, Chapel and Cippenham) was one of the initial sites that had had a ‘soft launch’ in November 2020.  The service would be available to adults of all ages with significant mental health needs in primary care with the aim of more flexible support and an ‘easy in, easy out’ approach which removed unhelpful thresholds and barriers.  Teams would be co-located including a clinical psychologist practitioner, consultant, registered mental health nurse and community connector.

In relation to the NHS Long Term Plan the Panel noted the strong commitment it had to give parity to mental health and increase baseline funding.  Progress was being made on local delivery including work to reduce Out of Area Placements and improve dementia care.  Members were updated on a number of local developments including The Gateway which aimed to ensure there was ‘no wrong door’ in accessing services; Enabling Town Slough; and the EMBRACE therapeutic programme which had been formally accredited in May 2020.

The Covid-19 impact on services had been significant with an increase of 28% in contacts.  There had been a shift from face to face to virtual services.  It was reported that there had been an increase in the proportion of complex cases and people with increased acuity and more safeguarding referrals due to domestic abuse.  Members discussed the potential medium term impacts on demand for mental health services following the relaxation of some ‘lockdown’ restrictions throughout the year.  There had been a change in the nature of nature of presentations this year which was likely to be due to the pandemic and the rising problem of loneliness was a major concern.

Speaking under Rule 30, Councillor Strutton commended the partners for the work they were doing and asked a number of questions on out of area provision, issues caused by moving to virtual provision of services and suicide prevention.  Officers responded to the various points raised and it was noted that the number of Slough clients placed out of area was very low but was sometimes required when highly specialist provision was needed.

At the conclusion of the discussion the Panel thanked Officers for the presentation and for the work that was being done to improve mental health provision for local residents.

Resolved –  That the report be noted.