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Ian Syme
14/10/21
Darwin Centre; CAMHS 4w waits; CAMHS 18w RTT.
Trust Board Papers highlight the extreme challenges in recruitment and retention of clinical staff that have obvious implications for service provided by the Trust.
a. Does the Trust expect to recruit to all vacancies at the Darwin Centre within this fiscal year?
b. How many CYP at present waiting longer than 18w on the CAMHS RTT pathway? Does the Trust have a ‘date’ whereby the the requisite standard re CAMHS 18w RTT will be achieved and hopefully sustained?
c. Similar to b. Above CAMHS 4w (Refer to Assessment), Does Combined have a target ‘date’ when this standard will be achieved and hopefully sustained?
Trust Board Papers highlight the extreme challenges in recruitment and retention of clinical staff that have obvious implications for service provided by the Trust.
a. Does the Trust expect to recruit to all vacancies at the Darwin Centre within this fiscal year?
There have been a number of vacancies at the Darwin Centre for some time, similar to most inpatient mental health units. These have historically included Consultant, Registered Nursing and Healthcare Support Worker roles. The unit has 15 beds for children and young people requiring inpatient Mental Health care and is commissioned by NHS England as a specialist service. The service has seen an uplift in its funded staffing complement over the last 18 months as a result of additional investment and on paper this has sought to increase the number of vacancies that the Trust is recruiting to via the addition of new roles.
The Trust is making every effort to recruit to the vacant posts and has made excellent progress with Healthcare Support Worker roles. For these roles, the Trust expects to be fully established by the end of the fiscal year. The unit has also historically had Consultant Psychiatrist vacancy, which has been filled this year on a substantive basis by a newly qualified Consultant who trained with the Trus, so this post is also now filled along with a new Specialty Doctor role that has also been appointed to.
The area the Trust will continue to struggle to recruit to is for Registered Mental Health Nurses (RMNs), for which there is a known local and national shortage. The Trust is making every effort to recruit to these roles via active campaigns and in parallel increase the number of trainees in this area to ensure there is a future pipeline of staff qualifying for these roles.
b. How many CYP at present waiting longer than 18w on the CAMHS RTT pathway? Does the Trust have a ‘date’ whereby the requisite standard re CAMHS 18w RTT will be achieved and hopefully sustained?
As of 1st November 2021, there are 11 out of 180 children and young people on the Trust’s waiting list who have waited longer than 18 weeks for the commencement of treatment for their mental health. This is actively managed and monitored on a daily basis by the CAMHS community teams. The 12 month trend of our compliance with the 95% 18 week RTT standard for CAMHS services specifically is detailed in the table below. We are confident regarding the continued achievement of this standard.
c. Similar to b. Above CAMHS 4w (Refer to Assessment), Does Combined have a target ‘date’ when this standard will be achieved and hopefully sustained?
As of 1st November 2021, 23 out of 105 children and young people on the Trust’s waiting list have waited longer than 4 weeks for their initial full assessment as to their mental health needs. Again, this is actively managed and monitored by CAMHS teams. The 12 month trend of our compliance with the 4 week standard is detailed in the table below. This is a challenging standard due to timescales and demand on our CAMHS services. This is also not currently a statutory standard (unlike 18 weeks) however the Trust considers this important and therefore continues to report compliance with the target. The Trust is less confident on continued achievement of this standard on a monthly basis given increasing demands but will continue to make every effort to monitor, achieve and report the position against this.