Agenda item

This item gives an overview of the impact of lockdown on young people’s wellbeing and the support available.

Mandy Lawson (AD SEND) presented the report with Ayesha Janju (CCG, Children’s Commissioning) and Satwinder Saraon (SEND Development) and the following points were noted:

·       National data from ‘Young Minds’ showed that the pandemic had a significant impact on young people’s mental health.

·       Hammersmith and Fulham had a multi-tiered set of services that catered to young people with a variety of needs. Some of these services were delivered through community grants, some were paid for by the Council, some were commissioned jointly, and some were delivered or commissioned by the NHS.

·       Through the pandemic, mental health services had been prioritising higher priority urgent referrals – managing those young people deemed most at risk.

·       The Youth Council had been producing youth focused communications on Covid-19.

·       Services were now focused on normalising delivery as much as possible, using a mix of remote technology and in-person contacts.

Mandy Lawson noted that the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) taking place at the moment would provide a much richer set of data about the borough’s mental health needs.

Nandini Ganesh asked if most of the services went up to 18. Mandy Lawson said most went to 18. There was a Mencap transition worker to resolve issues in transition from Children’s Services to Adult Social Care.

Nandini Ganesh asked if the programmes highlighted, like Trailblazers, were time limited. Ayesha Janju said Trailblazers had only been running for a short while and the Covid-19 pandemic had delayed some of their plans to expand. But they wanted to improve access to these programmes – they were running seminars with GPs to increase awareness. A plan was in action to help them meet their targets.

Nandini Ganesh made the point that after the pandemic is over, support for mental health will be key. She asked if Family Support and H&F Mind had the requisite expertise in SEN. Ayesha Janju said, currently, the mental health support teams didn’t have enough SEN experience. They have requested that NHS England put workers in place to tackle more specialisms though like neuro-divergent people and SEN. Mandy Lawson added that a complex behaviour support service was being developed for children with autism and learning disabilities.

Councillor Mark Loveday, noting some of the concerns around H&F Mind’s performance, asked if officers had considered splitting contracts with other providers like OCD Action. Ayesha Janju said they weren’t worried about Mind’s performance - it was felt they were doing quite well given the circumstances. They faced significant recruitment challenges – but that was an issue for providers across the sector. Mind had a ‘solid’ plan to address these issues but they would be interested in linking up with other organisations like OCD Action.

Councillor Alexandra Sanderson requested an explainer of mental health provision aimed at councillors.

ACTION: Mandy Lawson / Satwinder Saraon

Councillor Sanderson asked if there were particular demographics that were harder to reach or promote services to. Mandy Lawson said that information wasn’t currently being collated in one place – but the JSNA would provide that data. She added that if officers thought a particular group was underrepresented then they would try to reach out and redress the balance.

Councillor Sanderson said it would be good to understand what happened to people after they were seen. She had received casework where people were discharged too early, or had needs that couldn’t be addressed etc. Ayesha Janju said the providers would have that information.

Councillor Sanderson asked if support was in place for families where a parent was in crisis. Bev Sharpe said there were a number of agencies to refer on to in those cases and staff knew how to access that support.

Councillor Asif Siddique asked if these services were properly resourced and if the services could cope with an increase after the pandemic.

Mandy Lawson said it was recognised that young people had been affected by the pandemic. She felt there was a good amount of services in place but the way they worked together could be improved. The key going forward would be targeting support in the right places and the JSNA would help with that.

Eleanor Allen asked what arts and leisure activities were on offer and if they needed to be expanded. Mandy Lawson said there was a wide range of services but she would come back with the exact offer. The challenge through the pandemic was adapting services to work with the restrictions imposed.

ACTION: Mandy Lawson

The Chair asked if there were plans to promote the offer. Mandy Lawson said the offer was promoted through the local offer platform, the H&F website, and other venues – but it would be further developed and promoted using the data from the JSNA.

Summary

The Chair summarised the discussion and requested an update on the learning outcomes from the JSNA in the new year.