Thursday, June 14, 2007
Mental Health Services locally
“FIT FOR THE FUTURE” CONSULTATION – MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Although the “main” consultation – involving services at Whipps Cross, is not now expected until October at the earliest, there will be consultation on our Mental Health Services, managed by NELMHT* across 4 boroughs: Waltham Forest; Redbridge; Havering; Barking & Dagenham. *[North East London Mental Health Trust]
The timescale for this is expected to be July-September.
Some of the main features of developments within NELMHT are:
Ø Moving to Foundation Trust status which requires consultation in its own right (some implications and issues below)
Ø Relocating services currently at Mascalls Park (Brentwood) to the Goodmayes site, affecting patients from Havering & Barking & Dagenham – by Dec.2011
Ø A new Detox unit for patients with “dual diagnosis” of having Mental Health problems as well as perhaps alcohol or drug related problems – 16 bed (funding from National Treatment Agency); E.London & City also expected to buy into this service
Ø A new “low-secure unit” for 15 men (originally to be PFI, but now capital funding)
Although the “main” consultation – involving services at Whipps Cross, is not now expected until October at the earliest, there will be consultation on our Mental Health Services, managed by NELMHT* across 4 boroughs: Waltham Forest; Redbridge; Havering; Barking & Dagenham. *[North East London Mental Health Trust]
The timescale for this is expected to be July-September.
Some of the main features of developments within NELMHT are:
Ø Moving to Foundation Trust status which requires consultation in its own right (some implications and issues below)
Ø Relocating services currently at Mascalls Park (Brentwood) to the Goodmayes site, affecting patients from Havering & Barking & Dagenham – by Dec.2011
Ø A new Detox unit for patients with “dual diagnosis” of having Mental Health problems as well as perhaps alcohol or drug related problems – 16 bed (funding from National Treatment Agency); E.London & City also expected to buy into this service
Ø A new “low-secure unit” for 15 men (originally to be PFI, but now capital funding)
- All above developments planned to be adjacent to Chapters House at Goodmayes by Spring, 2009
Ø Emphasis on more care in the community – any implications for Social Services will need to be carefully considered.
Ø Emphasis on more care in the community – any implications for Social Services will need to be carefully considered.
Foundation Trust status: issues & info.-
* The regulator would be not NHS London, but a body called Monitor
* There would be a Trust Board managing NELMHT and making decisions plus a Board of Governors where the majority of places would be the public and service users; opportunity for the local authorities to nominate also. How the 2 bodies would operate alongside each other in practice would need careful working out and is not entirely clear at present.
* One welcome development is to set up a Service Users’ group as a subcommittee of the Board
In the longer term, NELMHT will have an eye on the outcome of the consultation re King George’s and Whipps X to see if there is scope for having some services on either site, depending on any “downsizing” – but this probably won’t feature in the consultation.
The cross-borough Scrutiny group, of which Lib Dem Councillors John Beanse (Waltham Forest) and Ralph Scott (Redbridge) are members, has agreed to do some joint scrutiny of the proposals when the document is published, in addition to individual borough scrutiny.
* The regulator would be not NHS London, but a body called Monitor
* There would be a Trust Board managing NELMHT and making decisions plus a Board of Governors where the majority of places would be the public and service users; opportunity for the local authorities to nominate also. How the 2 bodies would operate alongside each other in practice would need careful working out and is not entirely clear at present.
* One welcome development is to set up a Service Users’ group as a subcommittee of the Board
In the longer term, NELMHT will have an eye on the outcome of the consultation re King George’s and Whipps X to see if there is scope for having some services on either site, depending on any “downsizing” – but this probably won’t feature in the consultation.
The cross-borough Scrutiny group, of which Lib Dem Councillors John Beanse (Waltham Forest) and Ralph Scott (Redbridge) are members, has agreed to do some joint scrutiny of the proposals when the document is published, in addition to individual borough scrutiny.
# posted by John Beanse @ 8:54 AM 
