Thank You for Your Further FOI Request of 2 May to the Department of Health

Our ref: DE00000699991

Dear Mr Ryan,

Thank you for your further FOI request of 2 May to the Department of Health.

In particular, your request was;

I should be grateful if you would kindly address the second part of the question on community veterans community mental health therapists. Specifically, in whichNHS Trusts are they located, which are the lead employing Trusts, and what is the breakdown between Combat stress outreach workers and NHS liaison workers (VCMHTs)?

The Department of Health does hold information relevant to your request.

There are ten Armed Forces Networks and these are located in each of the existing strategic health authority (SHA) areas. The information we hold for each Network is:

1. East Midlands

Lead employing trust in this region is the Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (LPFT). The LPFT employ the regional lead for Veterans’ Liaison Champions (VLC) in the region. They also have 0.1 of a Consultant Psychiatrist in post. The other four trusts have still to go to advert on this. Combat Stress (CS) are key partners, and where appropriate joint assessments will be carried out by CS and VLC.

Additionally there will be regular meetings between CS and VLC service to monitor NHS and CS service provision across the region ensuring the right service provision is given based on individual need, with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to base this on.

2. East of England

The lead employing trust in this region is the North Essex Partnership Foundation Trust (NEPFT). The NEPFT employs the following:

·  whole time equivalent (wte) band 8A Team Leader (social work professional);

·  wte band 7 Clinical Nurse Specialist;

·  wte band Psychologist; and

·  0.5 wte band 4 Administrator.

The trust also provides support to the North Essex Veterans Mental Health Network, which is funded through other means. The 'Veterans First' team are in the process of signing off an MOU to work collaboratively with colleagues from CS in the East of England who are funded through the charity.

3. North-West

The North-West Network has a dedicated MVImproving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service that covers the whole of the North West from Pennine CareNHS Foundation Trust (this is the lead employing trust) and hence have region wide coverage, even though only in one trust. Furthermore,over 100NHS Community Mentalhealth workers in other trusts have been trained in veterans’ awareness and a DVD distributed to reach even more.

There are no CS outreach workers. Pennine Care employs 13clinicians who specifically see only Armed Forces Community (veterans and serving and veteran families) two of whom are veterans.

4. South-East Coast

Sussex Partnership Trust is the lead employer. Sussex employs one NHS Community Veterans’ Mental Health worker. The Surrey and Kent contingent of Veterans’ Mental Health workers will be up and running by September. There are two CS outreach workers in the South East team based at Leatherhead.

5. London

Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust and South London & the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust are the lead employers. CS provides the following workers from their own funds:

·  Welfare Officer;

·  Welfare Support Officer;

·  Occupational Therapist; and

·  Community Psychiatric Nurse.

The following staff are NHS workers:

·  Consultant Psychiatrist;

·  Consultant Psychologist;

·  Clinical Psychologist;

·  Clinical Specialist (MH nurse); and

·  Senior Admin Band 5.

6. North-East

Tees, Esk and Wear Valley (TEWV) is the leading trust. TEWV have been providing veterans’ services for some time. They run a major veterans’ awareness programme for their staff. IAPT service providers have also received veterans’ awareness training and offer services across Teesside.

·  1 WTE mental health practitioner (AFC 5) and 0.8 WTE Therapist CPN (AFC 6) are employed by Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust; and

·  1 WTE mental health practitioner (AFC 5) and 1 WTE administrator (AFC 3) are employed by Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust.

In addition there are 0.2 WTE psychiatrist time across the two trusts (which cover the whole of the region). Over and above this, the two trusts have also each committed 0.1 WTE clinical lead and 0.1 WTE service lead to support the service, these costs are being absorbed by the trusts. The Veteran’s wellbeing and liaison service for the North East has been set up with the support of CS. The staff are all NHS employees but are expected to work closely with CS colleagues.

7. South Central

There are two CS employees who cover this area. The tender is currently out for the uplift in Community Veterans’ mental health workers for South Central SHA. The contract is due to be awarded on 23 July and contract start on 1 September 2012.

8. South West

The lead employing Trust is the Avon & Wiltshire Partnership NHS Trust

The SW Veterans’ Partnership currently employs:

·  18ATeam Lead (Nurse);

·  0.87 Therapist (nurse);

·  0.84 Community Support Worker;

·  0.6 4Team Administrator; and

·  0.28Bclinical Psychologist.

CS employees are as follows:

·  1.3 CPN (band 6 equivalent);

·  1.3 CSW (band 4 equivalent);

·  1.3 RWO (Regional Welfare Officer); and

·  1.3 Desk Officer (admin support).

The 1.3 takes into account that the regional boundaries for the old SHA was different to that of Combat Stress. Wiltshire is in the old SHA SW region but in the South Central Combat Stress region. Therefore the SW NHS team worker across 2 CS Teams. In addition to this, working alongside, Devon Partnership Trust employs a full time Social Worker/Therapist as their lead. Gloucester and Cornwall are outside the remit of this Partnership.

9. Yorks and Humber

This response is broken down into what is currently happening (in 2011-12) and what will be happening (in 2012-13).

2011-12:

£100K funding in 2011/12 was provided to the VVADS (Veterans Vulnerable Adults and Dependants Service) for the IAPT service based at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire. This is an NHS run service based on the largest garrison site in England. The responsibility and funding for the project transferred on 1 April 2012 to the local primary care trust, NHS North Yorkshire & York. The project employs three therapists and is full-time project. £27K funding in 2011/12 for a Specialist Veterans Mental Health Nurse based within Humber Traumatic Stress Service, Humber NHS Foundation Trust based in Hull.

The scheme is an NHS run service and operated for 1 day per week. Originally put in place for 12 months the project has been extended (using 2012/13 funds) until September 2012 until the new Mental Health Outreach Project is up and running (see below). VVADS staff are now employed by Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The Specialist Nurse is employed by Humber NHS Foundation Trust. All staff are NHS employed and funded staff.

2012-13:

£150K will be utilised to employed 3 full-time band 7 mental health therapists/nurses. The project will be overseen by the Armed Forces Network and will be managed from NHS Humber Foundation Trust, which already has a Traumatic Stress Service, which sees a number of military veterans. The posts will be located in three locations; Humber NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust andSheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust. It is anticipated that the posts will commence in September 2012.

The posts will either be secondments from Humber NHS Foundation Trusts or will be directly employed by each of the three trusts listed above. This will be decided by the end of the month. Recruitment is about to commence. All the posts are NHS funded staff.

10. West Midlands

This is the only area for which we cannot currently provide any information. Tendering is underway for the uplift in veterans’ mental health professionals posts.

It may be useful to know that we now have more NHS mental health professionals in place than recommended by Dr Murrison in his report 'Fighting Fit', with additional posts to be added over the coming months. Additionally, over 100 NHS Community Mental health workers have been trained in veterans’ awareness. Working in partnership with Combat Stress, this provides a significant increase in the number of mental health professional providing services to veterans. This is supplemented by the ongoing work of the Armed Forces Networks within their own areas, and the e-learning package in place with the Royal College of General Practitioners aimed at raising awareness of veterans mental health issues.

I hope this reply is helpful. If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be addressed to:

Head of the Freedom of Information Team

Department of Health

Room 317

Richmond House

79 Whitehall

London SW1A 2NS

Email:

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the Department. The ICO can be contacted at:

The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Walter

Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health