Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board minutes: 23 July 2020

Attendees and apologies

Present

• Hugh Masters, Chair, Scottish Government (SG)
• Jeff Ace, Chief Executive, NHS Dumfries & Galloway
• Alex Brown,Programme Support Officer, National Services Division (NSD)
• Roch Cantwell, Lead Clinician Perinatal Mental Health Managed Clinical Network, NSD
• Ruth Christie, Workstream Lead Children, Young People, Families and Relationships, SG
• Elaine Clark, Perinatal Nurse Consultant, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde
• Mary-Ross Davie, Director, Royal College of Midwives
• Maria Docherty, Executive Director, Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Healthcare Professionals
• Aman Durrani, Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist, Royal College of Psychiatrists
• Fiona Fraser, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Perinatal Mental Health Services Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership
• Marsaili Fraser, Performance Advisor, Inspiring Scotland
• Maxine Hawthorn, (Deputising for Sally Ann Kelly), Assistant Director, Aberlour
• Katy Lister, Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health Team, SG
• Carsten Mandt, Senior Programme Manager, Perinatal Network, NSD
• Anne McFadyen, Infant Mental Health Lead, Perinatal Mental Health Managed Clinical Network, NSD
• Clare McGuire, Head of Programme, NHS Education for Scotland (NES)
• Eileen McKenna, Associate Director, Royal College of Nursing
• Justina Ritchie, Mental Health Nurse Lead, NHS Dumfries & Galloway
• Marie-Claire Shankland, Programme Director, NES
• Helen Sloan, Chair Maternal Mental Health Scotland, Maternal Mental Health Scotland
• Joanne Smith, Policy Manager, NSPCC
• Judy Thomson, Director of Psychology, NES
• Clare Thompson, Participation Officer, Maternal Mental Health Scotland (MMHS)
• Jackie Walker,  Head of Children and Family Services, Crossreach
• Harriet Waugh, Head of Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health Team, SG

Apologies

• Sally Amor, Child Health Commissioner & North of Scotland representative, NHS Highland
• Catriona Johnson, Programme Associate Director, NSD
• Sally Ann Kelly, Chief Executive, Aberlour
• Jackie Kerr, Assistant Chief Officer for Adult Services, Health and Social Care Partnership

Items and actions

Welcome, introductions and apologies

Hugh Masters (Chair) welcomed everyone to the eighth Perinatal and Infant Mental Health (PNIMH) Programme Board meeting, and apologies were noted as above.

The Chair acknowledged that due to the necessary virtual format of the meeting it may be challenging to have extensive discussion, but assured the group that there would be opportunity to ask questions, and encouraged comments via email after the meeting. 

The group agreed that the minutes circulated were an accurate representation of the May meeting.

Launch of 2020 to 2021 delivery plan

The Chair gave an update on the 2020-21 PNIMH Programme Board Delivery plan which had been launched on 3 July and received good visibility and engagement on Twitter, with a video announcement from the Minister for Mental Health.

The Delivery Plan includes separate action tables for Perinatal and Infant mental health to focus the work and highlight the importance of each area individually, whilst acknowledging the intrinsic overlap of the mental health of mothers, babies and their families. To ensure that the voices of women and families are at the heart of the plan, the eight asks of the Women and Families Pledge informed the actions and aims to be taken forward in 2020 to 2021. 

Current actions and priorities

The Chair advised that the visits to the regional Health Boards which had been cancelled due to COVID-19 would be going ahead virtually through July and August. The meetings were to discuss the development of PNIMH services in each area, with the aim of distributing funding by September.

Other current work in progress, such as the Third Sector fund and the meaningful involvement of people with lived experience, would be discussed by colleagues further in the agenda.

The Chair informed the group:

• the Peer Support report was completed but not yet in a position to publish as it needed further review
• a working group was being developed to progress the Equality Impact Assessment
• the PNIMH core team were organising a planning day for the beginning of September

Infant Mental Health (IMH)

The Chair invited Anne McFadyen to provide update on IMH actions and priorities.

Anne explained that NHS Fife and NHS Lanarkshire had received funding last year as the first ‘wave’ of allocations. The two first wave Boards were considered most ready to tackle the development of IMH services in 2019 2020. They have both been given the opportunity to apply for funding as part of wave two, and Anne and the Programme Board are assisting with their application. State of readiness of each Board and funding allocations for waves two and three will be assessed as part of the Board visits starting 27 July.

Anne advised that the Parent Infant Foundation (PIF) had offered to assist the Health Boards prepare and plan to be in a position to develop IMH services.
PIF would focus on one Health Board area to begin with, and look to develop a model that could be adapted for each region. 

Funding update

Board allocations

Harriet Waugh advised that funding allocations for 2020 to 2021 had been made to the two Mother-Baby Units (MBUs).

Guidance on the development of Community Perinatal Mental Health services would be issued with an allocation proforma to the Health Boards, with the return deadline of 4 September.

Third sector fund

Harriet informed the group that there had been huge interest in the PIMH fund with over 100 applications. She thanked those who had agreed to be involved in the decision making panel which was to be held on 5 August, with a view to have grants issued by the end of August. Harriet acknowledged the tight turnaround of the allocations and thanked Inspiring Scotland for their role in running the fund and panel.

Scottish Government Policy Team update

Harriet advised that she had recently taken on the role of Interim Lead of the Perinatal and Early Years Team at Scottish Government, and Ruth Christie was now working as Lead of the Children, Young People, Families and Relationships workstream. There had also been recent recruitment of a B1 post to provide maternity cover until January 2021.

Programme Board Partner updates

Perinatal Mental Health Network Scotland

Roch Cantwell gave an update from the Perinatal Mental Health Managed Clinical Network (MCN). Roch and the MCN have developed two service development guidance documents to support the Programme Board virtual visits to regional Health Boards, which are available on the MCN website.

Roch advised that the MCN had created role definitions to assist recruitment to specialist roles in PNIMH teams. Five of the definitions were finalised and would soon be available on the MCN website. The remaining four would be available in the coming weeks.

The MCN was developing six national care pathways to inform the establishment of local pathways, with accompanying guidance for women and families to know what to expect. Roch advised that all pathways would be finalised in the next six weeks.

The four MCN clinical forums had recently restarted virtually, and there was much enthusiasm to progress work delayed by COVID-19.

It was agreed that Roch would discuss Health Visitor representation at the forums with Clare McGuire.

Action: Roch Cantwell

Impact of COVID-19 on clinical services and remobilisation

Roch advised that there have been new ways of working established in the past months, such as the use of NearMe and other videoconferencing platforms, that would become embedded into services and were a positive development stemming from COVID-19. However, services still face huge challenges. The ongoing stress and trauma of the pandemic has had a knock-on effect on patients, and staff are busier than ever.

There was discussion on patient evaluation of remote consultations, and it was agreed that Jackie Walker would share a copy of the survey being carried out by Crossreach counselling services on patient experiences of video/teleconferencing appointments.

Action: Jackie Walker

NHS Education for Scotland (NES)

The Chair invited Marie-Claire Shankland to give an update from NES.

Marie-Claire advised that the two-day Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy training course was able to go ahead as planned in August. NES is in discussions with Human Development Scotland to develop the pathway towards Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy training in Scotland by increasing access to tiers of their training programme.

The Introduction and Keeping the Baby in Mind modules of the Essential Perinatal course have had good reach and excellent feedback. The Stigma and Risk modules are now available on Turas. The two remaining modules on Intervention will be available by the end of August.

Participation Officer

The Chair invited Clare Thompson to give an update as Participation Officer.

Clare advised that the Experts by Experience reference group now had 33 members, with eight health boards represented. Members of the group were involved in the third sector fund decision making panel and visits to Boards.

Family fund

The Chair invited Katy Lister to give an update on the Family Fund.
Katy advised that the terms and conditions of the fund were aligned with the Neonatal Emergency Fund, and were currently being finalised. Feedback and approval had been received from both MBU home Boards, and family friendly information posters and leaflets were being developed ahead of the launch. Funding arrangements were being made available in the interim period to those partners and families visiting women in the two MBUs.

Date and Time of Next Meeting: Thursday 24 September, 14.00-15.30