Minutes of the VCS Forum for Mental Health
22th July 2014 at the Priory Street Centre 2 – 4pm
Present:
John Burgess, Chair
Catherine McGovern, City of York Council
Alyson Scott, York Mind
John Brown, Healthwatch York
Rachel Fullerton, IDAS
Victoria Ferens, IDAS
Tina Warne, Richmond Fellowship
Katherine Blaker, JRF
Rachel Barber, ClarenceGardens
Melanie McQueen, York CVS
David Smith, The Retreat
Sharron Smith, York Carers Centre
Heather Simpson, LYPFT
Julie Kay, York Housing Association
Gale Robinson, York & Selby Early Intervention in Psychosis Team
Erin Richardson, Community Links
Catherine Surtees, CYC/York CVS
June Tranmer, Healing Clinic
Sian Balsom, Healthwatch York
Louise Sangwine, Healthwatch York
Carole Money, York CVS (Minutes)
Guests:
John Clare, Partnership Commissioning Unit
Deputy Chief Constable Tim Madgwick, North Yorkshire Police
Apologies:
Rita Sanderson, YREN
Mary Hodgson, Castlegate
Shirley Gennery, Castlegate
Alan Dunnett, 1-2-1 Counselling
Tracey Walker, Community Links
Lynne James, Mainstay
Vanessa Langford, Magnetic Arts
1.WelcomeThe Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting with a special welcome for new attendees and guests Tim Madgwick and John Clare.
2.Deputy Chief Constable Tim Madgwick, North Yorkshire Police: Impact of Mental Health on policing:
Tim’s presentation gave some data on how many people are presenting with a Mental Health issue. However, these figures underestimate the impact of Mental Health on policing.
A person with a Mental Health issue is three times more likely to be a victim of crime and five times more likely to be assaulted.
Plans to improve things are already happening. There is a focus on vulnerability – assessing how to deal with it. York has a Place of Safety; there will be four in North Yorkshireby the end of the year. Tim believes police cells should not be used at all under Section 136, and should always be the very last option.
When people are detainedhardly any are prosecuted – but they are held for their own safety orothers.
N Yorkshire Police are commissioning the NHS to provide services for those in custody, this will be in place by April 2015. A Mental Health Concordat is still to be signed in North Yorkshire, but hopefully this will be done by the end of August 2014. Up to 50% of police time in certain categories of calls can be spent engaging with those with mental health problems; Tim’s vision is that the police should have the same core duty of careas health professionals.
There is a lot more interest in mental health from senior members of the police. Training is in place for an effective and consistent service. Concern for safety is high on the agenda.
The numbers detained have come down but the average 9.53 hours detention time must also come down.In 2013/14 twentychildren were detained under the Mental Health Act. Tim is looking into the impact this has as the police have limited skills in this area, he will look to review circumstances if a child is brought into custody under the Mental Health Act.
Pathways to further care– domestic/sexual violence is massively underreported so there are no accurate figures and people can be severely damaged after years of abuse. A SARC has been set up in York but there is a big gap in provision, however Tim is optimistic that this will improve. York and North Yorkshire has been underfunded for a long time. There are opportunities for dedicated centres.
Street Triage is to come to York and Selby in August.It has been well received in Scarborough. It will open between 3pm and 1am 7 days a week and staffed by a Registered Mental Health Nurse and support worker. Medical records can be shared.
The police are currently working with‘Together for Mental Wellbeing Charity’ to create more preventative measures and to identify those most at risk. Tim advocates investment in prevention; in the long term it will avoid people accessing the more expensive parts of the system at crisis point, i.e. hospitals/custody.
There will be more scope for working with agencies through funding applied for from the Home Office for projects, coaching, mentoring,and support. Bill Scott is the dedicated member of staff dealing with mental health issues. There are Mental Health Champions at inspector level across the district. NYPCC has commissioned a piece of work on Hate Crime. In addition NYP is looking at providing different options for reporting Hate Crime. We are failing many people in the city and HWB Board needs to take action. When someone with acute needs has to wait 6 months to see a consultant this is unacceptable and we should do better.
There is an information sharing agreement in Cambridge that Tim would like to introduce here. He would welcome any feedback from today’s presentation. Please contact Tim at
The Chair thanked Tim for his presentation.
3.‘Discover’ consultation on future strategy, John Clare, Strategic Mental Health Project Lead, Partnership Commissioning Unit (PCU) (including input from Forum/Healthwatch York joint meeting 30th June)
The contract for Mental Health services comes to an end in September 2015 and a new Mental Health contract must be implemented by October 2015. The PCU have been asked to prepare a tender specification by end October 2014. The Discover programme was set up to ensure people were properly consulted. It uses a different approach to engage withservice users and carers to find outwhat would people like in a more visionary way. It seeks to understand what works well. Discover was launched in April, there was an enquiry day in May building on engagement to date and there will be an Open Space Day on Thursday 24thJuly at Clements Hall to feed back what has been heard so far.
Healthwatch York and the VCS Forum for Mental Health had a joint session on 30th June to help define the issues we wanted to raise:
We asked:
- What are the key messages from the Voluntary Sector and service users that we need to raise?
- What’s good in the Voluntary Sector right now?
- What helps people see that recovery is possible?
- If in charge of the money, what would you do differently?
Action: Carole to send out notes from this meeting addressing the above points with the minutes.
Rachel F– IDAS is seeing some good work being done in resettlement. It doesn’t require a huge resource to co-ordinate the approach to help hard-to-reach people.
June – Autism – Now that PACT gone, what happened to the Autism Hub?
JC: There were tight timetables on spend, so the money was given back.
Sharron–Carers are the key to the support and communication with them is vital.
Katherine B – What is the PCU doing to make this process accessible for service users to engage?
JC: People can email, tweet or engage through the Forum.
The Discover email address is he phone number is 01904 694 755. Callers should ask for Sarah Holliday.
Heather:LYPFT had a bus for two days (with the help of CYC) which they took to Acomb, St John’sUniversity and Askham Bar. They got some rich feedback.
Alan Dunnett – 1-2-1 Counselling (via email) – suggests we look more widely at a provider base to meet the needs of service user; increasing the range of services will ultimately improve the position for service-users. A copy of Alan’s email was given to John Clare.
John Clare’s comments: The virtue of peer support is a clear theme.The importance of acknowledging that carers have a role as a ‘partner in care’ has been taken on board and issues that carers have around confidentiality are recognised as clear barriers.
The contrast with Leeds was discussed. They have a more developed voluntary sector. The example of Volition demonstrates what can be done to properly involve the sector. There was a deliberate decision to create a diverse network of providers. Large voluntary sector organisations can overwhelm so it’s important to have a range of providers. John will make sure these comments are fed in. He hopes these themes can be built into the contracts.
Discover is a long term project to continually improve services and when the contract is awarded the provider will be expected to continue this process.
4.Healthwatch York – proposal – ‘Getting started in Mental Health Guide’
Louise and John from Healthwatch gave a presentation about introducing a Guide to Mental Health in York. It isaimed at people who are experiencing problems with their mental health, and their families, friends and carers. It will also be a resource guide to those working in the field. They would welcome Forum members’ input to pull this guide together. A form requesting information for inclusion in the guide will be sent out to all service providers and organisations working in mental health. The deadline for completion is the beginning of August.
David – The Recovery Network has a directory (which is more targeted at organisations and key workers) but there may be some information there that is useful.
5.Minutes of meeting held on 20th May 2014.
Matters arising:
The Chair wished to point out that no final decision has been made about BoothamPark. There are a number of options under discussion.
Recovery College – David has clarified this item in a briefing –copy attached.
The College’s14/15 prospectus is being published in August.
6.Information Exchange
Tina - Richmond Fellowship–Due to cuts in CYC funding, housing support services have been affected overall andfloating support services capacity has been reduced. They are moving towards providing more drop-in support and developing peer support groups.The Trust has approached Richmond Fellowship to lead the MH service user consultation.
Gale - York and Selby Early Intervention Service– There is an event 30th September at St Clements Hall 11am-3pm.
Catherine S – CYC - ‘Rewiring’. CYC want to consult about how all services can be reconfigured. There is a ‘Transforming Places Together’ event at Priory Street Centre 23rd July. Social Care - there is a new team working on this. The lead is Chris Weeks; Graham Terry has left; the new interim Assistant Directors for Adult Services are Guy van Dichele and Kirsteen Murray. They will be focusing on the new Social Care Act – Integration of Health and Social care. There is little information now butCatherine hopes to have enough for an item on the agenda for the next meeting.
Rachel B – ClarenceGardens – There is a rolling programme of activities on Tuesdays at the Hut – currently jewellery making and model making.
Katherine Blaker - JRF– Dementia Action Alliance – There is an event 17th September at New Earswick Folk Hall 9.30am-12.30pm Dementia Friendly Awareness.
Heather Simpson – LYPFT New clinical director – Steve Wright.
Thursday 24thJuly -Involvement event - Planned changes in Dementia & Cognitive Impairment M/H services at Krumbs Cafe 1pm-3pm.
Thursday 7th August – ‘Quality within the Trust’ event at Sycamore House 2pm -3.30pm
Wednesday 13th August- Come along to share experiences and help shape future services at Quaker House 6-7.30pm.
Sian- Healthwatch York– work plan – one of the main priorities is Mental Health. Sian is looking forward to engaging with members of the forum to take this forward.
John Burgess – A new Forum Support Officer has been appointed by York CVS.
7. Any Other Business
None
8 .Dates of 2014 Meetings
16th September
18th November
All held at 2-4 pm at the Priory Street Centre
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