The last four years have seen considerable progress in the delivery of our Future in Mind programme which is demonstrated by the examples, quotes and material included in this, our refreshed Local Transformation Plan (LTP) for the final year of Future in Mind. There has been significant cooperation across children’s services to improve access for Children and Young People. As part of the Mental Health Awareness Day 2019, “Talk out Loud” a young person led anti stigma group developed resources to raise awareness of mental health and help stamp out mental health stigma in schools and the wider community, with 100% of secondary and 90% of primary schools participating, and commitments made to further increase its profile. Four times the number of young people now say they are happy to talk about their mental health compared to when the programme began. As the Future in Mind programme transitions to the Northamptonshire Health and Care Partnership’s Long Term Plan, we build on the foundations created within multiple organisations to improve the emotional wellbeing for our children and young people.

The success of the Referral Management Centre continues to mean that the majority of referrals in relation to children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing are dealt with in one place and triaged to the most appropriate provider. This has streamlined processes and improved access we are now seeing three times as many children and young people than we did when the programme began. We are seeing reduced waiting times at nearly half of where they were four years ago, and our case studies show how we have improved the experience for children, young people and their families across Northamptonshire.

During the time of the programme, there has been significant complexity and change in our county which is expected to continue in the years ahead. In addition to being one of the fastest growing populations in the UK, local government will be changing to create a Children’s Trust, as well as two new unitary authorities in the North and West of the county. Our two Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS Corby CCG and NHS Nene CCG, have also received support from NHS England to create a new single strategic commissioning organisation to serve the County from April 2020. However, even against this background of change and significant financial challenge we remain fully committed to continue working with our partners to improve our outcomes for the mental health and well-being of our children and young people.

Our refreshed strategic priorities are included in this LTP and will be a key focus over the remainder of the Future in Mind five-year programme, and as we then segue into the NHS Long Term Plan. The journey is far from complete as we continue to experience and balance increasing complexity alongside greater expectations. We are looking to develop new models of care to respond to needs with local, integrated and outcomes focused pathways, which look at impact as well as activity. I would like to thank all of our key partners; the Local Authority and Public Health, our wide range of provider organisations from both the NHS and the Third Sector, and especially our children and young people (CYP) and their families. We remain committed to listening to the views and experience of CYP and their families so that we deliver services appropriate to their needs and experience of the world.

Signed By

Toby Sanders, Chief Executive Officer, Northamptonshire CCGs.