Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board minutes: 26 January 2022

Attendees and apologies

Author:

• Alex Brown

Present:

• Hugh Masters, Chair, Scottish Government
• Sally Amor, Child Health Commissioner , NHS Highland
• Leanne Anderson, Performance Advisor, Inspiring Scotland
• Elizabeth Archibald, PNIMH Service Development Adviser, Scottish Government
• Alex Brown, Assistant Programme Manager, NHS National Services Scotland 
• Roch Cantwell, Vice Chair, NHS National Services Scotland 
• Helen Cheyne, Professor of Maternal and Child Health Research, University of Stirling
• Ruth Christie, Workstream Lead Children, Young People, Families and Relationships, Scottish Government
• Emma Currer, National Officer, Royal College of Midwives
• Aman Durrani, Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist, Royal College of Psychiatrists
• Sheila Gordon, Director, CrossReach
• SallyAnn Kelly, Chief Executive, Aberlour
• Marion MacAuley, Chief Social Work Officer, Social Work Scotland
• Kat Masterson, Participation Officer, Maternal Mental Health Scotland
• Anne McFadyen, Infant Mental Health Lead, Perinatal Mental Health Managed Clinical Network, NHS National Services Scotland 
• Clare McGuire, Head of Programme, NHS Education for Scotland
• David Pickering-Gummer, CAMHS General Manager, NHS Lothian
• Marie Claire Shankland, Programme Director, NHS Education for Scotland
• Helen Sloan, Nurse Consultant Perinatal Mental Health, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Joanne Smith, Policy and Public Affairs Manager, NSPCC
• Judy Thomson, Director of Psychology, NHS Education for Scotland
• Harri Waugh, Head of Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health Team, Scottish Government

In Attendance:

• Ross Cowan, Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health Team, Scottish Government
• Lisa Golds, Internship, Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health Team, Scottish Government
• Katy Lister, Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health Team, Scottish Government
• Irene Permaul, Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health Team, Scottish Government
• Fiona Wilson, Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health Team, Scottish Government

Apologies:

• Kaylie Allen, Head of Funds, Inspiring Scotland
• Fiona Fraser, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Catriona Johnson, Associate Programme Director, NHS National Services Scotland
• Lauren Kennedy, Lead Nurse for Mental Health and Learning Disabilities, NHS24
• Jacqueline Kerr, Assistant Chief Officer, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Ross McGuffie, Chief Officer, Health and Social Care, NHS Lanarkshire
• Eileen McKenna, Associate Director, Royal College of Nursing

Items and actions

Welcome, apologies and housekeeping

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

The minutes were agreed as an accurate representation of the November 2021 meeting.

It was agreed that the group would review and approve the Terms of Reference document, which was circulated with meeting papers.

Action: All

Scottish Government policy team

Irene Permaul (Senior Policy Officer, Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health team) presented a summary of recent and upcoming work:

The first annual Peer Support event is taking place on Wednesday 23rd February 2022.

In discussions with SeeMe around developing the existing Raising Awareness work into a good practice guide, with the ambition to have that available in the first half of the year.

Aim to launch the Mother and Baby Unit options appraisal consultation in mid-February, closing at the beginning of May. There will be an easy read accessible version, and the team are currently working on an engagement plan to support accessibility for that.

NHS spending review consultation closes on 27th March 2022.

Liaising with the two Mother and Baby Units around visiting arrangements and Covid-19 restrictions.

Supporting the Health Boards to develop regional posts and structures.

Roch Cantwell (Vice Chair) advised that the PB and the Perinatal Mental Health Network (PMHN) are jointly organising the ‘Supporting Women, Reducing Harm’ event for late April, and are hoping for wide attendance from Scottish Government (SG), service providers, people with lived experience, and third sector colleagues. The event has the broad aim of looking at issues related to women and infants who experience drug or alcohol misuse in the perinatal period, identifying good practice and challenges to current provision, and discussing models of service delivery and pathways into care for the future.

Anne McFadyen (Infant Mental Health Lead, PMHN and PB) and colleagues from Aberlour are running focus groups with women with lived experience in preparation for the event.

The Chair committed to contact Fiona McQueen, Vice Chair of the Drugs Death Taskforce.

Action: Hugh Masters

Roch and Anne agreed to meet with SallyAnn Kelly (Chief Executive, Aberlour) for further discussion around a relevant piece of upcoming work at Aberlour.

Action :Roch Cantwell and Anne McFadyen

Perinatal Mental Health Network

Roch Cantwell, as Lead Clinician for the PMHN managed clinical network, gave an update on recent and upcoming work:

The Forums continue to meet and sustained contact with clinicians has been positive

Aiming to have the perinatal mental health Clinical Audit System, a national data collection system for all services, up and running by April 2022, with training available.

Care pathways are available on the PMHN website, and the accompanying patient information animations are soon to be finalised.

Working with NHS Education for Scotland on specialist team training.

Releasing monthly Spotlight bulletins to promote exciting service development across the country.

Going forward, PMHN will be working on good practice statements (such as around visiting arrangements), and, jointly with the PB, service specifications and service evaluation.

Infant mental health

Anne McFadyen gave an overview of recent and upcoming work of the Infant Mental Health Implementation and Advisory Group (IMH-IAG):

At the next IMH-IAG meeting, Anne and Kat Masterson (Participation Officer, Maternal Mental Health Scotland) will present a proposal for an Infant Voice subgroup. The aims of this working group are to focus on infant rights and on how the work of the PB relates to the UNCRC, on how to access the voice of the infant, and on having a strong link to The Promise. The proposal also suggests refreshing the Women and Families Maternal Mental Health Pledge to include infants, or to develop a standalone Infant Pledge.

Also at the next meeting, Andrew Dawson, Professional Lead for Child Psychotherapy in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GG and C), will lead a discussion on evaluation and data.

The upcoming IMH Forum will discuss Regionality and the different ways that Health Boards can support each other develop their IMH services.

Close working with the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board’s 3-5 year olds task and finish group.

Literature and evidence review

Lisa Golds (Internship, SG Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health team) presented findings from the recently completed evidence review of IMH measures being used in Scotland. The review was guided by a number of questions; what factors are considered when choosing appropriate measures of IMH? What measures for identifying IMH issues are currently being used in Scotland? How has the pandemic affected identification of IMH issues? Findings from brief interviews with the IMH teams in NHS Fife and NHS Lanarkshire are also included in the review. The research questions were developed with the policy team and Public Health Scotland, as part of the evaluation plan stemming from the PB Evaluability Assessment.

There was group discussion around parent-infant relationships, holistic infant mental health systems, and the importance of shared language.

Lisa’s presentation will be made available to PB and IMH-IAG members and to the Children and Young People’s Joint Delivery Board. The report will be finalised and incorporated into the Public Health Scotland evaluation plan.

Action: Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health team

The Chair acknowledged that there is work to be done on the overall PB evaluation plan, and committed to providing more detail on the Public Health Scotland commission at the next meeting.

Action: Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health team and Public Health Scotland

Service development

Lizzy Archibald (SG Service Development Adviser) advised that statutory service development continues to be monitored, with the ambition to promote public facing progress reports after formal agreement from the Health Boards. She presented current progress on service development across the Health Boards. The Chair emphasised that the update presented in the meeting was confidential until Boards signed off on the information.

Currently the Board updates are concentrated on staffing and accessing services. Going forward, the aim is to focus on how the service functions and its wider capacity in terms of regional working and engagement with the third sector and people with lived experience.

The PB are holding catch-up meetings with Boards over the coming weeks, and hope to organise more in-depth visits (potentially in person) from April onwards to discuss developments across the teams. Invitation to the larger meetings is extended to clinicians in the services, people with lived experience, and third sector partners, as well as senior and executive leads. The Chair committed to providing further updates at future PB meetings.

Action: Perinatal and Ealry Years Mental Health team

Perinatal mental health inquiry

Fiona Wilson (Senior Policy Officer, Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health team) advised that the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee have undertaken a short inquiry into perinatal mental health in Scotland. There were 102 responses to the public consultation, from a range of individuals and organisations. Although this was a Scottish Parliament exercise, the Perinatal and Early Years Mental Health team carried out a rapid analysis of all the responses and identified a range of themes, some of which fell out with the portfolio of the Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care, Mr Stewart.

An evidence session with stakeholders on 7th December 2021 helped to shape the questions asked of the Chair, Mr Stewart, and the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport, Ms Todd, at the Committee session on 14th December 2021.

The Chair gave an overview of the Committee session and main topics of discussion. It had been agreed that the team would take forward development of a national service specification over the next year. The team have replied to a Committee request for more information, and are waiting to hear about next steps. PB members will be informed when recommendations from the Committee are received.

Post-meeting note: The Committee report has been published and can be viewed here.

Next meeting

Wednesday 30th March 2022.