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Agenda item

Mental Health Street Triage Briefing Report (Shairoz Claridge/Jason Jongali)

Purpose: To provide an update for the Board.

Minutes:

The Board considered a report (Agenda Item 10) concerning a briefing report on Mental Health Street Triage.

The Berkshire West Street Triage One Year Pilot Project was part of collaborative funding arrangements between Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Groups, three Local authorities and NHS England at a total cost of £150k. This service was based on the Oxford Street Triage Model of care to support the reduction of mental health patients being detained inappropriately in police custody, reduce the use of Section 136 and also to support the Local Crisis Care Concordat Action Plan Commitment from CCGs & LAs.

Street triage referred to a service where clinical mental health professionals (MHPs) accompanied and/or assisted police at incidents where the possible mental ill health of an individual gave rise to concern. The MHPs would assist in ensuring the best option for the individuals in crisis. They would do this by offering professional advice on the spot, accessing health information systems, and helping to liaise with other care services to identify the right kind of support required.

Between 1 April 2014 to 31st March 2015, there was a total of 216 Section 136 applied by Thames Valley Police officers in Berkshire West (136- Reading, 47- West Berkshire and 33- Wokingham). This was an increase of 23% on the previous year for Berkshire West. Mental Health incidents as reported by TVP, during the same period of time were reported (per 1000 population) Reading- 6.4, West Berkshire- 2.9 and Wokingham- 2.1. Reading had the third highest in the Thames Valley area, whilst West Berkshire and Wokingham were below the TVP average of 4.5.

The project sought to achieve the following outcomes:

·         To reduce the number of Section 136’s applied by Thames Valley Police (TVP) across Berkshire West.

·         To provide alternative mental health outcomes to persons found in crisis by TVP officers in Berkshire West.

·         Provide support to TVP regarding mental Health Welfare/ calls of concern calls received by TVP control room.

·         Release/ free up TVP officer’s time/ earlier return to non- Mental Health related duties.

·         To prevent mental health patient being detained in police custody

An evaluation of this project took place in January 2016 to share the impact of this service in Berkshire West. The draft report had demonstrated positive outcomes and the case was strong.

The plan was to develop a business case to seek recurrent funding of £133k for the Berkshire West Street Triage Service for 2016/17 from the CCGs & LAs. Jason Jongali reported that he was confident that the business case was strong and recurrent funding would be received.

Councillor Jones asked that the report be circulated to the Board once it had been finished. He further enquired what mechanisms were in place to review the business case for continued funding of the street triage service. Jason Jongali replied that Reading Borough Council were the lead Local Authority for the pilot and Wendy Fabbro, Head of Adult Social Care at Reading Borough Council would coordinate with her counterparts at Wokingham and West Berkshire to review the business case.

Councillor Cole asked whether Thames Valley Police would also contribute to funding the service; Jason Jongali affirmed that they would.

Leila Fergusson advised that although she represented the voluntary sector at the Board, she also worked with people who had learning disabilities. She enquired whether these service users would also benefit from the service. Jason Jongali replied that anybody with mental health or learning disabilities presenting in a state of distress could be supported by the service.

RESOLVED that the report be noted. The final report would be circulated to all Board members once received.

Supporting documents: