Agenda item

Purpose: To provide a report from the Mental Health Action Group as part of its work in addressing elements of the delivery plan for the West Berkshire Health and Wellbeing Strategy. This work involves the impact of personal financial problems on people’s mental health.

Adrian Barker (Chairman of the Mental Health Action Group) presented the item on Financial Problems and Mental Health (Agenda Item 11).

The Board expressed their thanks to Adrian Barker, Rachel Johnson and the other members of the Mental Health Action Group for their work on the report. It was noted that the Group had not shied away from ‘sticky issues’ (e.g. dealing with large corporations which were now starting to realise the links between mental health and money matters). It was noted that one High Street Bank was now working with schools on financial awareness initiatives.

The need for improved communications was highlighted – around £15 billion of benefits went unclaimed each year, which highlighted the need to reach those who were entitled to them.

It was noted that further work was needed to develop the actions and ensure that the right people were identified to progress them. It was suggested that the results be reported to a future meeting.

It was recognised that sharing information between agencies would help to identify people who were struggling and prevent further escalation, but data protection legislation made it difficult to do this.

The Board noted that Citizens Advice used to have a specialist adviser for people with mental health issues, but this was lost due to a lack of funding.

The work being undertaken with schools was welcomed and acknowledged as being important.

Concern was expressed about disabled people being able to access services and advice.

The proposal for a physical wellbeing hub was welcomed, since residents could be put off joining a gym by the cost.

A point was made about cultural pressures, particularly on young people, to aspire to certain lifestyles, which could result in financial pressures.

Members felt that the Mental Health Action Group needed to be ambitious in terms of converting aspirations into progress.

An observation was made that the report’s findings were consistent with issues raised through the Cost of Living Hub.

Digital exclusion was recognised as a particular issue that needed to be addressed in order to improve access to information, and it was suggested that this needed to be incorporated into the evaluation of the Cost of Living Hub and the Winter Outreach Programme.

The Board noted that some people were in financial difficulties because they were victims of fraud / scams. Work was ongoing with Thames Valley Police on a joint initiative to tackle this. It was suggested that something could be built into the report’s recommendations around fraud prevention.

The report highlighted potential to utilise the Better Care Fund to support initiatives and officers indicated that they would be happy to look at this.

Action: Consider how the Better Care Fund could be used to support initiatives to tackle financial problems and mental health.

The report was welcomed by Sovereign Housing – they indicated that they were happy to be involved and to support any future actions on tackling fraud.

The work of Recovery in Mind was praised and it was suggested that they could be involved in delivering the action plan. (Matthew Hensby declared a personal interest by virtue of the fact that his wife worked for Recovery in Mind.)

The point was made that Greenham Trust had funding available to support local charities, but they had not come forward in the numbers expected.

It was suggested that the report was not in a position

The Chairman proposed that the report’s proposals be refined in conjunction with partner organisations before being brought back to the Board (via the Steering Group) for final approval. The motion was seconded by Councillor Jo Stewart. At the vote, the motion was carried.

RESOLVED that the report’s proposals be refined in conjunction with partner organisations before being brought back to the Board (via the Steering Group) for final approval.