Cash boost for children and young people’s services

Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale is to receive a cash boost to help transform emotional health and wellbeing services for children and young people.

In response to the document ‘Future in Mind’, which focusses on promoting, protecting and improving mental health and wellbeing services for children and young people, a Rochdale plan of action for the next five years has been developed with the help of local children, young people and their families, to transform these services in Rochdale.

Teams working within the NHS and Local Authority, including children’s services, public health, the voluntary and community sector, youth justice and education have contributed to the plan, which has now been given the green light by NHS England. As a result, Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale will receive almost £2.1 million of additional funding from NHS England, released over the next five years, to help to deliver its vision by 2020.

Simon Wootton, chief officer for NHS HMR CCG, said: “We have been listening to children, young people and their families about how they would like services to look in the future, what works well and what needs to change.”

“We heard that quite often, people don’t know where to go for help and support, and our plan aims to make access to services much simpler. There will also be more of a focus on providing support at the earliest stage, including through self-help resources, to prevent children and young people from becoming poorly, and providing care closer to home.”

Heywood Middleton and Rochdale’s plan focusses on:

• Making sure children and young people know where to go for support
• Making services easier to access and keeping waiting times to a minimum
• Having more of a focus on self-help, prevention and picking up problems at the earliest stage, where possible preventing a crisis situation
• Building the resilience of children, young people and their families, and developing the capacity of ‘trusted adults’ within the community
• Providing care as close to home as possible and developing a single point of access for emotional health and wellbeing
• Enhancing counselling services and developing a community based eating disorders service

Dr Raj Patel, medical director for NHS England (Lancashire and Greater Manchester) said: “We are pleased to support the transformation of emotional health and wellbeing services for children and young people in Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale. The area will receive £2.1 million of additional funding from NHS England, released over the next five years to help deliver its vision by 2020.”