Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) which provided an update on progress with the Step up to Great Mental Health improvement programme. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 6’, is filed with these minutes.

The Committee welcomed to the meeting for this item Gordon King, Director of Adult Mental Health, LPT, John Edwards, Associate Director for Transformation, LPT, and Paula Vaughan, Head of Commissioning, Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Groups.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)          A Clinical Senate had undertaken a review of the Step up to Great Mental Health transformation proposals and whilst formal feedback was awaited, the informal feedback had been positive with the increased partnership working being particularly welcomed. As part of this partnership working multi-disciplinary teams would be created using staff from health and local authority social care teams.

(ii)         In response to concerns raised by a member that removing dormitory accommodation at the Bradgate Unit would reduce the overall number of beds at the unit, reassurance was given that the process would be managed in a phased way and there would be no sudden drop off in bed numbers. Members requested that they be provided with the precise figures for the numbers of beds currently in the Bradgate Unit and the proposed numbers of beds after the dormitories were removed.

(iii)       Concerns were raised that some patients could fall into a gap between addiction services and mental health services. In response reassurance was given that conversations were taking place with the Turning Point substance misuse service and the drug and alcohol service at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust to ensure patients were not moved from service to service unnecessarily and a ‘no wrong front door’ policy was in place which meant that a patient would never be turned away and told to present elsewhere. Signposting would not direct patients away from the ‘door’ but should make clear to patients how to access the services they needed.  The Central Access Point played a crucial role in ensuring that patients were directed to the correct service straightaway without having to be referred through several different departments. A campaign had taken place using social media such as Facebook to publicise the Central Access Point phone number but further work was needed to take place in this regard to increase awareness. The NHS 111 telephone number redirected callers to the Central Access Point without the caller having to redial.

(iv)       In response to a suggestion from a member it was agreed that a flow chart would be produced to show to a lay person how the LPT services all fitted together.

(v)        Performance and outcomes would be measured at neighbourhood level and the detail on this would be brought to future meetings of the Committee in iterations.

(vi)       A member asked for more statistics around the services referred to in the report particularly in relation to the number of patients using the Central Access Point to give an idea of the changes in demand that were taking place. Members also asked for service user data to be broken down into geographical areas showing where there was unmet need and  requested information on how LPT was tackling mental health issues in ethnic minorities and particularly those patients of African heritage. In response it was explained that there was no clear way of understanding the numbers of people that did not make it into the services they needed. Work was currently taking place to understand the demographics of current service users.  It was agreed that all the requested information would be provided to the Committee at a later date and would definitely be available by the next time the Committee considered the topic.

(vii)      It was important that mental health voluntary services were supported and financed. The Mental Health Investment Standard covered the voluntary sector

(viii)    LPT were confident that there would be equal access across LLR to good standard of service but were not complacent in this regard and recognised that there would be challenges.

(ix)       In response to concerns that families and carers of patients were not always kept updated on where a patient was receiving treatment reassurance was given that this was not typical and close working took place with patients’ carers. If specific cases were known where the communication with carers or families had been poor then these could be investigated outside of the meeting.

RESOLVED:

(a)        That the Step up to Great Mental Health improvement programme be welcomed and supported;

(b)        That Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust be requested to provide a further update to the Committee in early 2021.