Agenda item

To consider PowerPoint presentation.

The item will be led by the Council’s Strategic Manager Principal Educational Psychologist, Dr Tim Cockerill together with colleagues from Public Health, Children’s Services and the NHS.

The presentation will include an update on the Trauma Informed Somerset practice model and implementation.

Note – the Chair will allow 40 minutes for this agenda item.

The Committee received a detailed presentation, which included an update on the Trauma Informed Somerset practice model and implementation.

The Committee asked for details on the regional summit in the autumn and noted the position re the recruitment of coordinator and the system wide trauma informed training offer.

The Chair welcomed the following to the meeting for this agenda item:-

·      Dr Tim Cockerill – Somerset Council, Principal Educational Psychologist

·      Patsy Temple – Strategic Manager, Public Health

·      Mark Conway – Deputy Head CAMHS

·      Patrick Worthington – NHS Somerset, CYP Mental Health Commissioner

·      Nik Harwood – CEO Young Somerset

·      Lisa Walker – Somerset Council, Strategic Manager, Ops Perm and Wellbeing

The Committee received a detailed presentation on children’s mental health and wellbeing in Somerset, covering the following:

·      The national and local picture, which reflects the national context, increased pressures and need across various teams and service areas, including increasingly complex and crisis presentations.

·      Prevention and early support - achievements and key areas of focus / priorities.

·      An update on the Trauma Informed Somerset practice model and implementation and the system wide trauma informed training offer.

·      Support for those with mild-moderate mental health needs –Mental Health Support Teams work with children and young people aged 5-18 to provide low intensity cognitive behavioural therapy interventions for mild to moderate mental health and behavioural difficulties in school and community settings across Somerset. Young Somerset is a third sector organisation and can apply for external funding and so bring more funding into the county.

·      CAMHS data, which shows sharp rise in urgent care needs, presenting to the liaison teams at Musgrove and Yeovil Hospitals.

·      Next steps – collaboration, trauma informed care, ‘reversing the pyramid.’

·      The specialist support for Children Looked After, Care leavers and Kinship families.

·      The strategic commissioning priorities, as there is a lot of unmet need and are in process of recruiting a dedicated project lead to inform service response.

·      Need to embed the principles of the approach – children and young people get help they need: right place, right time, right person – further establish the community / education based mental health offer.

·      Mentioned regional summit taking place in early October which members are very welcome to join if they wish.

The Committee asked a number of questions and made a number of comments which were responded to at the meeting:

·      Position on the recruitment of trauma informed coordinator and the training offer – approval to recruit to this post was given recently and the postholder will start driving change forward; there is a clear plan in place for September as agreed level 2 offer for all schools, so this is further ahead than the coordinator role; trauma informed principles and approach within the whole school approach for emotional wellbeing through the Somerset Wellbeing Framework.

·      Clarification on the data detailed on slide 5, support for those with mild-moderate mental health needs -  an explanation on what the data is saying was given. Schools engagement mentioned as well. Will share the most recent quarterly report which provides more detail on this (for example ‘completion rate’).

·      Questions on the network of trauma informed champions and how this will operate – will be sector champions so not necessarily in schools; going to develop pathfinder schools which will become hubs of best practice, so a peer support model.

·      Questions on staffing, recruitment, and retention of mental health staff / Young Somerset -Talking Therapies mentioned – Health England fund trainees who are then employed during their training year and receive a postgraduate diploma qualification from Exeter University. There are 6 funded places for January and able to select and recruit very well. They get a 2-year training contract - are then able to become a senior practitioner or clinical supervisor which helps with retention too, so working on pathways (creatively) as a system across Somerset.

·      Question on whether young people self-present with eating disorders – rarely self-present but other conditions do self-refer – have good and established liaison with acute sites as a system in Somerset. Joined up with Young Somerset to develop ‘Jigsaw’ which is a service which Young Somerset operate alongside liaison to try to reduce the number of re presentations and this is having a good impact.

·      Reference to teachers’ professional skills issue / nuanced – culture of school / system matters. One of the aims of the Education for Life Strategy is on getting right culture across ‘everywhere that children are.’

·      Question on the self-injury information – the Summit mentioned earlier will explore this – members are welcome to participate in the steering group if have time.

In conclusion, the Chair thanked the presenters for the positive and extremely detailed presentation and asked for an update to the Committee in 6 months’ time.