RQIA Independent Review of Child and Adolescent Mental Health ...

The primary mechanism for the commissioning of CAMHS in the HSC Board
has been driven by the Bamford Review (2006). The reform and
modernisation of the services is the responsibility of the Bamford
Implementation Group. This group is the network for the development of
CAMHS and works in partnership with local commissioning groups on
identifying needs and developing services and supporting service
improvement at regional and local level. This has resulted in significant
investment over the last three years. These include: investment of £2.5
million in areas such as eating disorder services; development of crisis
assessment and intervention teams providing same or next day assessment;
development of addiction services; development of primary mental health
workers; and, enhancement of youth counselling in schools.
In addition, Beechcroft on the Foster Green site, which cost £16 million,
provides a purpose-built inpatient service for children and young people,
significantly increasing the total number of available inpatient beds for
Northern Ireland.
When completing the profile questionnaire the HSC Board was in the
process of developing a minimum data set, which would review the range
and scope of CAMHS in Northern Ireland. This data had not routinely been
collected and will support the monitoring of services. This information is
planned to standardise the collection of data across all trusts, which will
enable the HSC Board to identify more effectively the needs of children and
young people in Northern Ireland and aim to consistently evaluate and
benchmark CAMHS.
Since April 2008 the HSC Board has funded over 18 ECRs at a cost of
approximately £2.9 million. Funding for these ECRs was based on the
clinical assessment of the young persons needs presented by the trusts.
These have been approved on the basis that the young person's needs could
not be safely or effectively met in Northern Ireland as the service or expertise
required is not available in Northern Ireland. The HSC Board reported that
ECRs were funded by legacy boards on a non-recurrent basis. There is no
dedicated budget for ECRs which continue to be funded on a non-recurring
basis. Effectiveness of the care and treatment of young people who are the
subject of ECRs is required by the trusts, in the absence of a formal review of
clinical progress and the need for a placement outside of Northern Ireland.
The HSC Board states that they are currently reviewing these arrangements
to monitor the process more tightly.
In the NI Children Services Plan 2008-11 the HSC Board reported that the
response to the growing demand for specialist intervention from the legacy
boards was an investment of £1.6 million. This investment was focused on
• developing capacity within the existing CAMHS teams
• establishing eating disorder services
• establishing crisis assessment.
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