Redesigning and transforming mental health services - update

Children and Young People's Advisory Group

The Alliance Board, a new governing body with oversight for the mental health and wellbeing of 0 -25-year-olds in Norfolk and Waveney, is now up and running, with the first meeting successfully held in late December. Given the importance of children and young people's voice and involvement, a Children and Young People's Advisory Group is being established.

The plan is for the Advisory Group to meet in advance Alliance Board meetings, to help shape the agenda. Group representatives will provide key input at Board meetings. Initially the Advisory Group membership will be gathered from those involved in existing participation groups and networks, but one of the tasks of our Insight and Engagement workstream is to explore how to involve and hear the voices of as many children and young people as possible, including younger children.

We hope to hold the first Advisory Group meeting in March. If you'd like more information, contact robin.konieczny@norfolk.gov.uk

Mental Health Support Teams

As reported in the last email update, two pilot Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) will be established this year to serve North Norfolk and Kings Lynn. Each team will support approximately 20 schools or 8,000 pupils, in a range of education settings including primary, secondary, colleges, special schools, the short-stay school and specialist resource bases, specialising in social, emotional and mental health needs.

The core functions of each MHST are:

• Delivering evidence-based interventions for mild to moderate health issues;
• Supporting the Senior Mental Health Lead in each school/college to introduce or develop their whole school approach;
• Giving timely advice to school/college staff and liaising with external services to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education.

This will be delivered by a team of Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) supported by a clinical lead and senior therapists. The teams will be based at Alderman Peel High School in North Norfolk and St Edmunds Academy in Kings Lynn.

It is still early days for the team - the EMHPs have only just started! Much of this year will involve intensive training at UEA and placements in certain schools, with the intention of running the full service in early 2021.

This is great news for North Norfolk and Kings Lynn, but we expect that the learning and evidence from these pilots will benefit Norfolk and Waveney as we explore how to work more preventatively as a system. In addition, a second wave of funding for additional pilot teams has recently been announced, so we are hopeful that we will be able to extend to other areas in due course.