Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board minutes: June 2022

Attendees and apologies

Board members

• Hugh McAloon (HMcA), Scottish Government (Co-chair)
• Nicola Dickie (Chair,) Cosla (Co-chair)
• Angela Davidson (AD), Scottish Government
• Hannah Axon (HA), Cosla
• Angela Scott (AS), SOLACE
• Amanda Farquharson (AF), Integration Joint Board (IJB) Network
• Judy Thomson (JT), NHS Education for Scotland (NES)
• Michael Chalmers (MC), Director of Children and Families, Scottish Government
• Paul Carberry (PC), Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS) Forum representative
• Martin Dorchester (MD), Children in Scotland (CiS) Forum Representative
• Cathy Richards (CR), Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government
• Aileen Blower (AB), Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government
• Jackie Irvine (JI), Social Work Scotland
• Alison Taylor (AT), Deputy Director: Improvement Attainment and Wellbeing, Learning Directorate, Scottish Government
• Hugh Masters (HM), Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board
• Laura Meikle (LM), Improvement Attainment and Wellbeing, Learning Directorate, Scottish Government
• Jackie Irvine (JI), Social Work Scotland
• Abbie Wright (AW), Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament
• Rosy Burgess (RB), Scottish Youth Parliament (YP support)
• Cheryl Burnett (CB), National Parent Forum of Scotland (NPFS)

Additional attendees

• Richmond Davies(RD) on behalf of Angela Leitch, NHS Chief Executives
• Joanna McDonald (JMc) on behalf of Michael Chalmers,  Directorate for Children and Families
• Laura Holton (LH),  Head of Family Support Unit within Directorate for Children and Families
• Nick Smiley (NS) on behalf of Morven Graham, Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP)
• David Gibson (DG), Sponsor task and finish three, Head of Service, Argyll & Bute
• Alison Sutherland (AS), Sponsor task and finish six,  North Ayrshire Council
• Suzy O’Connor, (SOC),  NHS Education for Scotland (NES)
• Jane Brumpton (JB), Early Years Scotland (EYS)

Support

• David Leitch (DL), Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government
• Maggie Fallon(MF), Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government
• Ruth Christie (RC) Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government
• Peter Innes (PI), Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government
• Neil Guy (NG),  Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government
• Jean Carwood-Edwards (JCE), Professional Advisor, Scottish Government
• Carolyn Wales (CW), Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government
• Emma Papakyriakou (EP), Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government

Apologies

• Morven Graham, Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP)
• Carrie Lindsay, Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
• Maureen McAteer, Sponsor task and finish group three, Barnardos
• Ruth Miller, Sponsor task and finish group three, Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP)

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

Chair welcomed everyone to the seventh board meeting, introduced new members and provided apologies.

Chair noted forthcoming departures from the board. Chair thanked JI for all her valuable input to the board. Chair also thanked EC for all contributions at board and task and finish group.

Chair provided a summary of chair’s engagements since the previous meeting:

• chairs have met with a number of leads and sponsors to discuss the work of each task and finish group and provided advice/support when required
• leads and sponsors have met to share updates and identify linkages across the groups
• chairs met with MSYPs to hear about their experiences and reflections as board and task and finish group members.  Chairs discussed the possibility of offering personal development opportunities and options are being explored. Board members were also invited to consider any offers they could make to the MSYPs
• it was noted that these meetings have been helpful in beginning to consider  potential next steps beyond the life of the board

Chair welcomed HMcA to provide an update on the mental health and wellbeing strategy and the national care service. Main points included:

• consultation on the new mental health and wellbeing strategy is underway, open from the 29 June until 9 September
• the national care service bill was introduced into parliament on the 20 June 2022. This is a significant transformation programme for the public sector and it is recognised time and engagement is needed in order to make informed decisions
• scottish government will be engaging widely on the implications on the national care service on mental health with partners, workforce and service users

Task and Finish Groups – reporting templates

At the March board meeting, members had asked to see the education and training task and finish group six workplan. This was circulated. No comments or concerns on the workplan or reporting template were noted. 

Members also requested a short progress report on task and finish group three - Support mental health pathways and services for children and young people in vulnerable situations and in need of care and protection, aligned to the work of The Promise. Chair invited lead to provide the update. This included:

Workstream one: will capture good practice that already exists for care experienced (CE) and CYP in vulnerable situations and identify key themes, producing a good practice document.

Workstream two: will create a resource for the children and families workforce supporting CE and CYP in vulnerable situations and what CE CYP want them to know.  Who Cares? Scotland will work closely with this workstream to a produce a training video / animation about mental health support for CE CYP. 

Workstream three: will produce recommendations made by the group to capture the challenges / background for CE and CYP in vulnerable situations beyond the work of the JDB. The focus will be what needs to be put in place going forward.

Work on all three workstreams is now being progressed by sub groups.

The T&F group is also undertaking significant engagement with Who Cares? Scotland to ensure children and young people’s (CYP) voices are central and ensure what we are doing is the right approach.

 Comments from the board included:

• a need to be clear who the training resource is for and ensure it reaches the right people. It was not clear whether the resource was for workforce delivering services or for those developing training
• An offer of assistance was made from the group to help identify examples of good practice for the good practice document
• board members identifying mental health gaps for CYP out of school/at risk of becoming looked after.
• the need for a test of change approach, was queried involving integrated approach with across broader mental health provision and CAMHS. It was highlighted that there were examples of this within the communities provision being looked at by the communities task and finish group and learning could be drawn from here
• need to take a different approach by looking at the risks and outcomes of mental health experience, trauma experience, care, that have a long term impact. There are knowledge and skill needs that are outwith the NHS
• there need to be different models according to different geographies/ demographics recognising that there are less people to deliver services across Scotland
• there are some examples within the community/crisis task and finish group  work that picks up on non-attenders and liaison with CAMHS. Learning can be drawn from here
• whether or not young people have a mental health diagnosis is often debated in order to access treatment which can leave a gap in provision for CYP particularly at crisis point
• there needs to be a team around the young person(s) /support network. Board members discussed concerns related to crisis and unscheduled care. These will be fed back into appropriate planning structures

Chair invited leads/sponsors of the remaining task amd finish groups if they had any further updates or any specific asks of board - none were noted. There were no further comments by the board on the progress or future actions/direction of task and finish groups.  

HA queried with the group how comms can support understanding of preventative work. Narrative still tends to focus on CAMHS waiting lists. View of the Board were welcomed on this via email.

Board members provided wider views on future funding and governance:

• chair addressed a question about the range of good practice and focus on preventative spending. The chair explained local government recognises the need to bring services forward - prevention better than cure and the need to ensure stability across NHS/Local Government and third sector systems that support services
• HMcA highlighted the positive impact of the Community based supports and services funding  Government is committed to doubling spend over the parliamentary term. There are budget challenges to consider but the Scottish Goverment and cosla will be working on the trajectory of this
• we regularly hear comments that nothing is changing to support children and young people with their mental health although board members recognise this is not the case. Chairs agreed further work required on communications

Evaluation Update

 Chair invited HA to provide an update on the evaluation progress. Main points included:

• public health scotland colleagues have agreed to take a ‘lite touch’ review on the board’s behalf and work with leads from the task and finish groups on evaluation and the data that is currently available
• papers will be developed and brought back to the board

Family Support Work

The chair welcomed LH to discuss the work of the family support unit which links with the work of the board. LH provided the following summary:

• the work of the unit, includes holistic whole family support and links to the promise
• this will enable families to access support when they need it for as long as they need it
• first tranche will be £50 million in 2022-2023 – currently finalising the funding proposals and what they should look like
• this will include £32 million to Children Service Planning Partnerships (CSPP)
• second tranche - whole system change to support transformation of all CSPPs; and in close partnership with two CSPPs to build knowledge around what is needed locally and nationally for whole system change.  Establishing a learning for excellence with thematically set events to build a package of support Shortlisting process currently happening/final decisions end of August to start in September
• third tranche - building connections at a policy level across government and infrastructure around families
• in addition - planned formal evaluation for year 1, research and case studies are planned and a theory of change with a long term approach for evaluation

 Comments from the board included:

• operational challenges around spending small, isolated funds imaginatively while having to contemplate cuts to services. Need to invest in the whole system for whole system changes
• making links with work on mental health across the evaluation. As more qualitative findings come, mental health areas can be shared
• funding can be used in different ways so may have a broad scope
• opportunities Learning Network and evaluation can connect with a range of policy areas

Engagement Update

Members heard updates on how engagement with children and young people  has  progressed.  Scottish government officials will work closely with leads/sponsors to ensure that the findings from all research undertaken are considered by each of the groups going forward

EP presented on behalf of Young Scot and provide a summary of high level findings from the Insight engagement. Main points included:

• the scottish government commissioned Youth Link Scotland on behalf of the board to work with Young Scot, Children’s Parliament and Scottish Youth Parliament to gather views of children and young people about their mental health and mental health support
• an online survey was undertaken, aimed at 12 to 25 year olds across Scotland and focused conversations with 8 to 25 year olds
• the final report will be due in July and will be shared initially with Leads and Sponsors

 JB from Early Years Scotland provided a summary the engagement work on the 3 – 5’s task and finish group. Early Years Scotland had also undertaken an audit of the professional learning and training resources that are currently available for staff working with children 3-5 years. The main findings included:

• engagement took place with the 7 local authorities
• numbers of respondents comprise:  children: 121, ELC staff: 142, Parents: 394. Also engaged with parents in primary 1 – primary 3 and early years workforce
• the overall findings of the engagement of professional learning audit align with the engagement activity and the emerging recommendation from the group to create more focused professional learning for the 3-5 early years workforce and support for parents/carers too
• the key findings and recommendations were circulated within the board papers.

NHS education Scotland colleague SOC presented on the work of the ‘one good adult’ resource which included:

• children in Scotland were commissioned to engage with children and young people on the one good adult resource which was developed previously following engagement on the knowledge and skills framework.
• children and young people are developing how people will use this resource, to convey the message about the importance of good adults.
• NHS education Scotland will develop guidance for this resource.

AOB and close

National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group will be hosting a suicide strategy workshop for board and task and finish group members shortly.

Next Board meeting is on the 20 September and an additional meeting will take place on 26 October with final meeting on 13 December.

Chair thanked all for attending and for their contributions during the meeting.