Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of The

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE

ROYALCOLLEGE OF PSYCHIATRISTS IN SCOTLAND

CHILD AND ADOLESCENT FACULTY

HELD AT THE THISTLE HOTEL, GLASGOW

ON FRIDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2011

Present:Dr A McGrathDr A CameronDr M Foreman

Dr E PowellDr H TindleDr A Alwazeer

Dr S GibbsDr L RussellDr A Devasahayam

Dr J PickettDr K LatimerDr J Piggot

Dr A BlowerDr M MortonDr A Morton

Dr D RenfrewDr L BoeingDr F Forbes

Dr A AddoDr C AndrewsDr E Lockhart

Dr G WilkinsonDr J GibbonsDr C Boyle

Dr M ForresterDr K StarrDr G Mwimba

Dr E Kerr Dr H MinnisDr L Kathuria

Dr S FlettDr L CollonDr S Khan

Dr T IraniDr C SinclairDr B Ahamat

Dr C GrimmerDr A HoskingDr J Young

Dr H GardinerDr S Hume

Dr C GilmourDr A McFadyen (Secretary)

Dr K Leighton (Chair)

Apologies were received from a number of members.

1. Minutes of the meeting held on Friday 26 November 2010 were accepted with only one amendment. On page 4, 1st paragraph under questions from the floor – first line should show “non mental health clinician” instead of “non-clinician”.

1. Elections

Vacancies were noted to be available for two members of the Executive Committee as Heather Gardiner (Glasgow) and Johnny Graham (Tayside) were stepping down.

a)New members of the Executive Committee

Requests for nominations were asked for prior to the meeting, but none were received. Kathy asked those present at the AGM for nominations;

• Aileen Blower was proposed by Gordon Wilkinson and seconded by Michael Morton

• Eleanor Kerrwas proposed by Michael Morton and seconded by Judith Piggot.

There were no other interested parties therefore Aileen and Eleanor were elected.

Kathy Leighton thanked both Heather Gardiner and Johnny Graham for their contribution to the work of the committee during their term of office.

b)There will be another vacancy as Alice McGrath, Academic Secretary is standing down. Kathy thanked her for her tireless efforts during her term in office. Alice has been ably supported during her time in office by Christabel Boyle and Helen Tindle, and Kathy extended her thanks to them also. A new Academic Secretary will be identified at the next Faculty Executive meeting.

1. Update from Dr Moira Connelly, Psychiatric Adviser, Mental Health Division, Scottish Government Health Directorates

Moira gave a talk on Mental Health Strategy 2011-2015 – Relevance to CAMHS, and her presentation is attached (see Appendix 1)

Moira’s presentation was well received and questions were invited from the floor:

a)Dawn Renfrew asked about the government perspective on achieving the outcomes indicated in the Balanced Scorecard, and noted that the emphasis seems to be on redesign rather than recruitment and training. As the latter is necessary too, how can weprogress this in the current financial climate?

Moira said that the expectation is that, even though there are financial restrictions, there was pressure for more recruitment and new recruits’ training needs to be met. We should also be concentrating on when training is relevant and improving quality. There is an Improvement Hub, which has expertise on how services delivered.

b)Heather Gardiner said that the new Equality Act (2010) was wide-ranging and asked about its influence on the equity of services from a CAMHS perspective.

Moira replied that there is an awareness of this i.e HEAT target on psychological therapy. The principal is there – we have to include this

Heather asked about access to LD in-patient services in Scotland.

Moira said that there should be and there is a route in England which will have to be looked at.

c)Michael Morton referred tothe Munro report on Child Protection Services. Reflecting on the Scottish experience, he said that he felt the expertise of child and adolescent psychiatrists was being used less than was previously the case. He felt that generally professional expertise was being downplayed, particularly in relation to Emotional Abuse and Neglect. Is there or should there be a legal framework of protection of rights?

Moira agreed that that this was important and admitted she hadn’t thought of a legal framework, but she will take this forward. It is important to know where professionals need to come in and she will look into this

d)Fiona Forbes questioned the focus on trauma, which is mentioned in the draft Mental Health Strategy. There is more focus on adults and she asked whether there should be a life-span approach. What is Government thinking on this?

Moira said there has been work done on this (self harm as an example) but agrees more thought needs to be addressed to the life span issue. We will have to think more broadly, not adult only. Will take point forward. Preliminary work was done by Denise Coia but has not been picked up.

e)Elaine Lockhart asked about the interface between Adult & CAMHS. A lot of adults/parents have mental health issues which impact the child. A more integrated approach would be welcome.

Moira said she will take this on board.

f)Kathy mentioned the Mental Health Strategy. There are opportunities to look across the age range. There are themes that would lend themselves to a joined up approach.

Moira agreed and said this could lead to integrated working.

1. Chair’s Report

Kathy Leighton gave a synopsis of the Chair’s Report, and the full report is attached (see Appendix 2).

Kathy thanked Anne McFadyen, secretary of the CAMHS Faculty, for her superb support in assisting the Chair, Alice McGrath, academic secretary CAMHS, and Judith McKie, academic secretary LD Faculty, for helping to set up this joint academic meeting. She also thanked Helen Tindle in CAMHS for assisting Alice McGrath over the year.

Finally she thanked Christine Caithness for helping with the administration of the conference and for updating the website.

Kathy invited questions from the floor;

• Fiona Forbes raised the issue of staffing levels. There was an increase in CAMHS staff at lower levels but a gradual decrease in consultants. Management appeared happy with this as it was saving them money, and they were using less experienced staff. Moira Connolly said that there was not enough information on this and more data was needed. She said she has a meeting with ISD and will ask to see details and determine whether there are any plans round this. Overall headcount going up but number of consultant psychiatrist Pas appears to be going down. There will always be flux but we need to look at demographic view. Moira will get national figures and compare with local ones.

• Judith Piggot agreed and wondered if the Choice and Partnership Approach also supported acceptance of a lessening of expertise and an undervaluing of consultants. She also referred to the limitations of datasets. Kathy said that this was an interesting perspective and it was important to gather relevant data.

• Michael Morton also raised the issue of expertise. He expressed concern that re-organisation was being used as excuse to change expertise through redesign of model of service delivery and use of locums. He was worried that we look at other grades but not at expertise in consultants. Kathy agreed there was a risk and that retirement was being used to redesign. She encouraged all members to continue to question managers and supported consultants in their role as leaders. She noted that the academic meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland in January will focus on leadership.

• Judith Piggot said that there was lots of talk about leadership but this was difficult for consultants to undertake in the context of contracts which limited the number of PAs devoted to Supporting Activities. She thought consultants needed time for leadership and also time to train other clinicians including junior doctors.

• Susie Gibbs talked about access to Children’s LD. She gave update and referred to Scottish Government’s document, which gives guidance on the implementation of the CAMHS-LD Framework. If anyone has any issues they should contact Susie who sits on the CAMHS Implementation Group. This is one of the key performance indicators on Balanced Scorecard.

1. Healthcare Improvement Scotland

Fiona Forbes said that some issues had already been covered.

Fiona talked about Integrated Care Pathways of which more information can be viewed by following the link -

Members should have a look at these and get involved in local implementation. She advised starting local and small. Data collection is very important and we need to measure quality of work and not just numbers. There is an online toolkit available which is very helpful and useful.

She said that ADHD services over Scotland will be reviewed again soon. Boards will be informed over next 2 weeks. There will be self assessment exercises and then Board visits. This is not an examination but a useful tool to highlight issues to Boards. Pathways for children are being developed which could be transferred to other areas.

The Cross Party Group meets 4 – 5 times a year. The next meeting is a joint meeting with MH CPG & C&YP Group and will be focusing on MH Strategy. Fiona will be talking at that meeting. She asked for key issues to include in her talk.

Finally Fiona’s secondment to Healthcare Improvement Scotland is being extended to March 2012. It is not clear what will happen after that

1. Academic Secretary’s Report

Alice McGrath thanked Christabel Boyle for delivering last year’s conference in Alice’s absence.

The attendance at this year’s conference, which was being held jointly with the Learning Disability Faculty, was very good. Alice asked that everyone complete the feedback form which was in their delegate pack. Last year only 74% of attendees completed their form. The feedback from members is very important and is taken on board. The feedback last year was very positive about the venue (St Mungo’s) but this had to be changed this year due to the fact that this year’s conference was being held jointly with LD Faculty and St Mungo’s could not accommodate our needs.

Last year 5 medical students attended but none came this year. Higher Trainees produced posters which were on display and Alice thanked them all for their very informative and professional looking posters.

Having a joint meeting was very challenging but the numbers attending were gratifying and Alice thanked Christine Caithness for her input on the administration side.

Alice asked for ideas for next years meeting and said that all ideas should be sent to the chair. Alice will be standing down and she thanked Christabel Boyle and Helen Tindle for all their help during her period of office

1. AOCB

• Aileen Blower – Forensic CAMHS. The past few years’ developments in Forensic Mental Health, for example, the setting up of the Forensic Network, have not included CAMHS. Despite discussion with the Mental Health Division at the SG, we have not been able to achieve any change in provision for young people with inpatient needs. No provision for adolescentforensic in-patient care. There is an absolute lack of access to forensic beds.

The number involved are small but not minute. Generic Consultants are having to deal with Forensic issues and this is not satisfactory. We need to write to consultants across Scotland to get their views on specific issues.

• Iain McClure had sent apologies but asked that attention was drawn to the Scottish Autism Assessment Survey which has been funded by the Department of Public Health, as part of the Scottish Government’s Autism Strategy (Strategy Funding: £13.4 million 2011-15).
  

The SAAS project will be investigating the well-recognised issue of difficulties within the current process for assessment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) across the whole age and IQ range (i.e child, adolescent, adult and over 65 populations). The SAAS Project budget is hosted by NHS Lothian on behalf of the Scottish Government. The SAAS Project team will report to the Minister for Public Health, in November 2012. The findings will then inform government-funded improvements in ASD assessment services for Scotland.

Iain will be happy to report to the Scottish CAP Faculty re the possible implications of our findings for CAMHS, this time next year, should this be of interest.

Anne asked the meeting to thank Kathy Leighton for her tireless work as Chair during the past year.

1. Date and Time of Next Meeting

Friday 30 November 2012 AGM and Academic Meeting

1

CC

7 December 2010