Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board minutes: October 2021

Attendees and apologies

Attendees – Board members:

• Donna Bell (DB), Scottish Government (Co-chair) 
• Alex Pirrie (AP), Integration Joint Board (IJB) Network
• Carrie Lindsay, Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
• Morven Graham, Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP)
• Michael Chalmers (MC), Director of Children and Families, Scottish Government
• Beccie White (BW), Scottish Youth Parliament 
• Erin Campbell (EC), Scottish Youth Parliament 
• Abbie Wright (AW), Scottish Youth Parliament
• Kirsty Morrison Scottish Youth Parliament (YP support)
• Paul Carberry (PC), Action for Children, Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS) Forum representative
• Martin Dorchester (MD), INCLUDEM, Children in Scotland (CiS) Forum Representative 
• Cathy Richards, Mental Health and Social Care Directorate (CAMHS Psychologist Adviser), Scottish Government
• Aileen Blower, Mental Health and Social Care Directorate (CAMHS Psychiatrist Adviser), Scottish Government 
• Laura Meikle, Improvement Attainment and Wellbeing, Learning Directorate, Scottish Government
• Alison Taylor, Deputy Director: Improvement Attainment and Wellbeing, Learning Directorate, Scottish Government
• Jackie Irvine, Social Work Scotland

Additional attendees:

• Jaime Neal (JN), Directorate for Children and Families, Scottish Government
• Linz Connel (LC), on behalf of Margaret Wilson, National Parent Forum of Scotland (NPFS)
• Bryony Monaghan (BM), on behalf of Carrie Lindsay, Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
• Ann Lee On behalf of Angela Leitch, PHS
• Bernadette Martin-Scott (BMS), Task and Finish Group 3 Sponsor

Support:

• Angela Davidson (AD), Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government
• Maggie Fallon (MF), 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
• Helen Crompton (HC), Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government
• Louise McKay (LC), Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government
• Hannah Axon (HA), COSLA
• Stephen McLeod (SM), Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government

Apologies:

• Angela Scott, SOLACE
• Carrie Lindsay, Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
• Nicola Dickie (ND), COSLA
• Judy Thomson, NES
• Angela Leitch, PHS
• David Gibson, T&F group 4 Sponsor
• Margaret Wilson, National Parent Forum for Scotland 
• Sara Preston (SP), Engagement Officer, Mental Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government
• Hugh Masters, Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board

Items and actions

Welcome and Introductions 

DB welcomed everyone to the Board and introduced new members.

JO’D has now joined SG on secondment and Nicola Dickie (ND) will now take on this role; ND will chair the next meeting. 

The first JDB newsletter was published on 7 September, DB thanked all for sharing with networks and encouraged feedback.

SP has been working with EC and BW to ensure papers are accessible for YP, these will be published on the SG webpage shortly.

Yesterday (10 October) was World Mental Health Day and BW and EC recorded a video on work of JDB, this was launched earlier today. DB and HA invited JDB members to retweet. A link will be added to webpage along with latest newsletter.

DB and JO’D met to discuss reporting of T and F groups to the board and also Ministers and COSLA leaders. An update for each T and F group will be required for each JDB meeting. In addition, the Minister for MH and Cllrs Currie and McCabe will meet on a quarterly basis and officials, board members and sponsors will provide updates on progress. 

Audit Scotland published a recent blog about the challenges children and young people continue to face in accessing mental health services. On 7 October 2021, the Public Audit Committee held a round table session to explore these issues. HA and DB attended the Committee to discuss work of the JDB. This went well and there was interest in community MH work. DB offered to provide the committee with a breakdown of the actions that have been taken against each of the 29 recommendations made by the Scottish Association for Mental Health and NHS NSS Information Services Division in its “Rejected referrals to child and adolescent mental health services audit”, published in 2018. This session can be viewed on Scottish Parliamentary TV.

DB reminded board members about the National Care Service consultation; the deadline for responses is 2 November.

Update from SG 

AD provided following update on Programme for Government (PfG) and Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party: draft shared policy programme:    

• PfG and the Covid Recovery Strategy have been published since last JDB meeting
• PfG includes wide range of commitments that will have an impact on MH and WB of CYP, including extension of Scottish Child Payment and commitment to invest £500 million to create Whole Family Wellbeing Fund
• MH spending will increase by 25% over length of this Parliament, 10% of NHS spend to go on MH and 1% on CAMHS
• progress being made on these commitments through R and R fund but also a focus on early intervention/prevention
• the Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party shared policy programme commits over time to doubling the budget for community based mental wellbeing services for children and young people
• wider commitment to renew the 2017-2027 Mental Health Strategy and MH Workforce Plan
• doubling funding on suicide prevention and commitment to MH primary care, recruiting 10000+ workers to extend community MH support
• further commitments include developing work on Student MH Action Plan
• wellbeing of CYP is key to Covid Recovery Strategy alongside increasing financial security for low income families, green jobs and fair work. Ministers will be taking an overview of work
• AD encouraged JDB members to consider how the commitments link to the work of the deliverables

DB suggested reviewing commitments and consider  where they fit into current deliverables to ensure maximum impact. Covid Recovery Strategy requires working across government.

Member’s comments included:

• additional funding welcomed
• need to consider how to spend increased funding effectively and for integration and SG at local government levels

MC acknowledged that discussions were taking place within SG about drawing together different funding pots. The aim of the Covid Recovery Strategy is to ensure work across government is joined up.

Task and Finish Group reporting templates 

DB explained the purpose of this session is for T and F group leads/sponsors to run ideas past JDB. DB asked Board members to consider progress of each groups and an opportunity to discuss the deliverables with the leads and sponsors. Updates provided can be found at Annex A. 

Principles for participation and engagement – addendum 

DB encouraged feedback from Board members on the addendum setting out approach to engagement with young children. Members were content to publish this.

Action point:

• CW to upload addendum to JDB webpage

Break

JDB video by BW and EC was played to group. Positive feedback from JDB on BW and EC’s work on this. The Board thanked and congratulated both on their work on this. 

Family support presentation – DCAF 

JN provided an overview of the Whole Family Support fund which included:

• aim of Fund is to provide access to early intervention/prevention support
• PfG announced investment of £500mil for Whole Family Wellbeing Fund that will give families support to access needed with focus on early intervention/prevention
• Children and Families Collective Leadership Group created a blueprint which received support and a Delivery Group has been convened to take work forward. A route map and principles for holistic family support have been developed and will soon be published on website
• four work streams have been established: 

o    Testing Changes (funding via children’s planning partnerships/wellbeing through universal services for families on edge of care)
o    Testing Whole System Change (in collaboration with Social Justice colleagues)
o    Improving Quality and Consistency of Family Support (to promote consistent standards to drive improvement using self-evaluation tool similar to How Good Is Our School)
o    Improvements, Commissioning and Procurement (COSLA taken lead on this in collaboration with third sector to improve service design)

Members comments included:

• welcome investment from SG and highlighted importance of not working in silos with different funding streams
• engagement with family and housing support workers in different areas and those with training have confidence in delivering support to CYP in crisis. Those without training feel anxious. Highlighted need to invest in training current staff as well as new staff
• agree with the approach described to take family support to scale, guided by principles and standards for Scotland. Support prioritising families impacted by poverty and inequalities. We can build the specific knowledge and skills needed to support some families where there are specific and additional needs e.g. neurodevelopmental support needs on a core model

JN recognised need for workers to develop skills in order to have consistent standard across Scotland. DB suggested using Trauma Informed model with different levels, with hope that all have baseline level as minimum.

Whole system evaluation 

HA discussed a draft proposal for a whole system evaluation of the work of the Joint Delivery Board. HA requested views of the Board and volunteers for subgroup to consider desired outcomes. SM, LM offered to support this work. DB proposed the CYP Engagement Officer be involved in this work to support voices of CYP being heard. 

Action point:

• HA to establish sub group to take this work forward. HA to provide update at next meeting

AOB and close 

Next meeting scheduled for 1 December and calendar requests have been issued for 2022 meetings.

DB thanked all for attending and for contributions.

Scottish Government
October 2021

Annex A

Paper 1 – Community

Update:

• next stage of work is an evaluation of community services which have been in place since January. Aim of evaluation is to understand how CYP feel about accessibility of services and to gather other qualitative information. Have some info on numbers of CYP using services but not on experiences using services
• Audit Scotland may look at issue of Rejected Referrals again and community MH services will play key role in redirecting referrals
• next meeting on 19 October

Paper 2 – Crisis

Update:

• a data request is being developed to send to HSCPs by early December to understand services coming out from new funding and the impact of these
• group is also working on development of a Framework
• engagement work will also take place

Comments from board included:

• not all HSCPs do children’s work, and should consider going out to Children’s Care Partnerships

Paper 3 - Pathways

Update:

• RAG status is amber but work is developing
• first meeting covered terminology and what aims of the T and F group are
• steering away from categorising and labelling CYP and using language aligned with the Promise
• next meeting is 14th October and will establish what needs to be produced and how to ensure this is meaningful

No questions raised by board members. 

Paper 4 - CAMHS service specification

AP provided update: 

• group have met three times
• looking at next steps for improvement plans and implementations plans for regional and national plans
• info and data requirements led by E-health directors
• SP to attend next meeting to establish how to engage with CYP
• still lacking members around from social work and a GP representative

No questions raised by board members.

Paper 5 - implementation of a neurodevelopmental service specification

Update:

• ND spec has been published, SM thanked all for contributions
• SM highlighted need to build capacity of people with knowledge and skills in pathways in healthcare/education/social care
• focus is on five test of change areas and have circulated X to health/soc care/education in these five areas
• will explore what help and support needed from test of changes areas
• by 1 Dec want to report on Delivery

No questions raised by board members. 

Paper 6 - training of workforce

JT/AP not available for update.

No questions raised by board members. 

Paper 7 

Update:

• BMS is sponsor for 3-5 T and F group and will join subsequent JDB meetings  
• work is progressing well and second T and F group took place on 28 September
• current work focusing on gathering evidence/data/examples of good practice focusing on areas of innovation/ where there is possibility to introduce new services for 3-5s/ where children’s voices have been heard.  Being selective in compilation of evidence and data and compiling in summary form for accessibility. Keen to understand utility of recent publications like 27-30 month review
• a subgroup has been established to draft an options paper on how to engage with 3-5s and their families. Also keen to hear from ELC workers as well as encourage p1-p3 pupils to reflect on lived experiences

No questions raised by board members. 

Paper 8 - communications

Update:

• MD thanked all for contributions and congratulated BW and EC for work on the video
• MD encouraged all members/delivery leads to capture messages they wish to be shared especially using recorded videos and to be proactive in reaching out to Comms group to share news
• also encouraged all to keep in touch with updates on work
• challenging over summer holidays for all members to attend and asked Board members to encourage all T and F members to attend groups where possible

DB suggested a quarterly video update for each deliverable from either YP or Sponsors.