Independent Oversight and Assurance Group on Tayside's Mental Health Services: letter discussing children and young people on 25 August 2022

To:

Claire Pearce, Nurse Director, NHS Tayside

25 August 2022

Dear Claire

Children and young people work plan - final question set 

Thank you for facilitating the Oversight Group’s time recently with the CAMHS team, and other colleagues. I now want to share with you, the final set of questions from the Oversight Group in respect of our Children and Young People Work Plan. Whilst this is not a published work plan, nonetheless, we welcomed the opportunity to take a detailed look at the seven Trust and Recommendations which relate to children and young people’s mental health services in Tayside.

Please find the final question set attached at Annex A and I would be grateful if you could also share this with the colleagues we met.

We look forward to receiving your response and to closing off this work plan.

With my thanks and best wishes.

Fiona Lees

Chair, Independent Oversight and Assurance Group on Tayside’s Mental Health Services

Copy to: Tayside Executive Partners

Annex A- children and young people work plan - final question set

Recommendation 33

We welcomed having sight of ‘Connected Tayside’ and hearing further about the planning and integration of children’s services via the Tayside Regional Improvement Collaborative. Please ensure you set all of this out, in your final submission to the Oversight Group which we have requested by Friday 30 September.

Recommendation 34

We appreciated hearing from you on the steps you had taken, to build integrated children’s services around GP practices (this had not been set out in earlier submissions). Please include detailed coverage of the triage arrangements you have put in place and also information on the steps that we understand you have subsequently taken to coordinate services around schools. As a side issue, in our meeting with Penumbra on 15 June, we noted that they were unaware of these arrangements and whilst we would not expect every organisation to have a direct involvement, we would expect there to be awareness of this ‘facility’ and its purpose. Could you please clarity matters.

This is one of a number of recommendations where reference to the CAMHS website is made. When we met with colleagues, we discussed the functionality of the website and its usage. There was an agreement to provide us with the reports you rely upon for your web analytics, which provide assurance around usage and highlights areas for development.

Recommendation 35

We welcomed hearing direct from the team who are engaged in this development. Please ensure in your final submission that you provide a detailed timeline for completion of this pathway. One of the areas we sought clarification on was the RAG status of ‘Amber’ from TEP for this recommendation but ‘Red’ from NHS Tayside in its remobilisation plan. In discussion, you touched upon the anticipated reduction this service would have upon the number of complaints you receive. This pointed to robust arrangements in place for complaint handling and learning. Please ensure you include all of this in your final submission.

Recommendation 36

In the June 2020 Listen Learn Change Action Plan, reference was made to the need for partnership expertise around prescribing.

Please set out your governance and accountability arrangements, including how arrangements with pharmacy (and others with knowledge of prescribing) has been strengthened, within your final submission. Finally, please also provide an update on the post-project evaluation that was scheduled for March 2022.

Recommendation 38

No further information required. Please set out all of the arrangements you have put in place to meet this recommendation within your final submission.

Recommendation 39

We discussed this recommendation at length and you have clearly given full consideration to all available options. Accordingly, please set out your programme for the development of service provision along with a timeline and the arrangements you have in place to ensure children, young people and their families remain at the centre. Please include commentary on the extent to which a multi service model is being put in place.

Recommendation 41

Please set out the arrangements in place to ensure independent advocacy is offered to families engaged in CAMHS. Please also include how you assure yourselves on the quality of that service/s and on any unmet need. In developing your work, you clearly have arrangements in place for engagement. It would be helpful if you could consider if we would be able to hear directly from families and young people themselves prior to us concluding our work.