SENIOR Staffordshire councillors have backed plans for a service supporting the emotional health of children and young people to be recommissioned.
The county council currently commissions a service alongside the area’s Integrated Care Board (ICB) to support those with “mild to moderate” emotional health issues.
The service works with families and communities and focuses on prevention and early intervention to help children aged between five and 18, as well as young people aged up to 25 who have care needs or disabilities.
The current contract is due to expire next year, but at the latest county council cabinet meeting, members backed plans for a new service to be commissioned from April 2025 which will last for two years, with the option to extend for a further two years.
Cllr Mark Sutton, cabinet member for children and young people, said:
“Every Staffordshire child and young person deserves to have the best start in life and the chance to achieve their potential – key to this is their emotional health and wellbeing.
“Our current emotional health and wellbeing service, jointly commissioned with the ICB, is working well.
“The contract coming is to an end and it is clear we will need to commission a new service from 31st March next year. We need to build on some of the the positives of the current service that is delivered by Action for Children, work to procure a new service and work on some of the areas we need to try and include.
“The service is for children that have mild or moderate emotional wellbeing issues. It’s not a replacement for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) – it is more of a preventative low-level service before children are deemed to medically need a CAMHS input.
“The recommended option would be to procure a new emotional health and wellbeing service for children and young people, have some improvements to the specification we will be working on together with the ICB, and take opportunity to make changes where we feel they will enhance what is provided.
“We want to keep within the current financial framework, which is just under £1million, and we must ensure that the new service avoids any duplication with other help and support there is for children with emotional health and wellbeing issues.”
A report to the cabinet meeting highlighted the demand for children’s mental health services.
It said:
“The long-term effects of the pandemic on the mental health and emotional wellbeing of a generation of children and young people cannot be underestimated.
“The increased recognition of mental health issues, social isolation and disruption to home and school routines have contributed to increasing vulnerability to mental health and emotional wellbeing problems.
“Nationally, over the next three to five years, around 1.5 million children and young people will need new or additional support for their mental health, or 15% of all children and young people aged between five and 19 years old. This equates to around 21,315 children and young people in that age range living in Staffordshire.”