Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 14 November 2016.

The Minutes (copies of which had been circulated) of the meeting held on 14 November 2016 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The following have been invited to attend the meeting and participate in the discussion and the evidence gathering process as part of the review:-

·         Jenny Wilborn and Sarah Lea of Healthy Young Minds

·         Martin Powell,  Education Psychology Service

·         Moira Appleby and Heidi Shaw, Stockport Family

·         James Harper, Beacon Counselling

Councillors are reminded that the issues for consideration include:-

·         The desire to work towards a first point of contact as a referral pathway for schools and GP’s

·         Work being undertaken nationally by NICE and how that can be used to benefit Stockport Council

·         Encouragement to Schools to have a named lead/development of emotional wellbeing leads

·         How the various (embedded) mental health support services in schools interact

·         Raising awareness in schools of the HYM services

·         How the 1.5WTE additional mental health practitioners will be deployed

·         Training for school staff / improve confidence of school staff in working with emotional distress

·         The impact of the Living Life to the Full Programme/ Development of a toolkit to support school’s commissioning of mental health support

·         the link between good mental health and educational attainment/ impact of the new OFSTED regimes

Officer Contact: Stephen Fox on Tel: 474 3206 or email: stephen.fox@stockport.gov.uk

The Chair welcomed representatives of Healthy Young Minds (formally CAMHS), the Educational Psychology Service, Stockport Family, the School Nurse Service and the Voluntary Sector to the meeting. He explained to them the of the purpose of the review and asked that they explain to the Panel the work they undertake and what they do to help and support children and young people in addressing mental health concerns.

A number of comments were made/issues raised:-

·         Healthy Young Minds (HYM) were working closely with the Multi-Agency Safeguarding & Support Hub (MASSH) towards creating a single point of access and improving the accuracy of referral forms to get the most appropriate support to young people as soon as possible.

·         There were a number of advantages to having school based mental health programmes including i) reducing barriers to treatment such as cost and transportation ii) enhanced access to services through a single location and iii) opportunities for providing quality and timely advice to parents.

·         There were many online resources available, notably the ‘Young Person’s Notebook’ which provided advice on a variety of issues including bullying, depression, alcohol misuse, relationships and sexuality to name but a few.

·         The Panel were keen to ensure that all schools were made aware of the availability of the online resources.

·         The Education Psychology Service fulfilled a range of statutory and non-statutory functions focusing on the most vulnerable of pupils in both mainstream and special schools.The service operated closely with Stockport Family supporting children with less acute mental health issues and that there was a wealth of information on the Council website both for parents, carers but also for schools.

·         The Panel were encouraged by the excellent work undertaken by the volunteers and acknowledged the positive effect that the support provided has on removing barriers to learning and improving opportunities to succeed academically.

RESOLVED – That the representatives of Healthy Young Minds, the Education Psychology Service, Stockport Family and the Voluntary Sector be thanked for their attendance and contributions to the Review.