Listen Up - Social Welfare Portal

listenup!Chapter 12 | 85RecommendationsOverarching principles for policyand practice01 Services for young people must be personcentred,holistic and inclusive. They need touse a range of approaches derived from theevidence and from what young people sayworks, including mainstream health and socialcare interventions, but also interventions centred,for example, around arts, creativity, leisure,participation, sport, education and spirituality.02 Although specialist services are required forcomplex or serious mental health issues, thebasic service model for young people needsfundamental change. Access to services shouldbe possible whatever the entry point. Servicesmust be able to integrate their response todiffering needs (e.g. mental health, sexual healthand housing) at the point of entry, which willusually be in a non-mental health setting. Staffshould be able actively to support young peopleto navigate the system and address their needswithout labelling or badging the response.Recommendations for Commissioners03 Each health and social care community/economy must designate a lead agency andperson to co-ordinate the commissioning ofservices for young people aged 16-25.04 This agency and person should convene a localpartnership board to steer commissioningfor young people, that includes all the keyvoluntary and statutory sector agencies.05 The partnership board should agree a clear setof principles for commissioning that are basedon the principles summarised above. As partof this framework, monitoring and evaluationframeworks should be developed so thatvoluntary and statutory sector providers areexpected to measure outcomes based on theavailable evidence and on young people’s viewsof what the outcomes should be.06 Voluntary sector organisations should becommissioned for time periods of betweenthree and five years, to allow for appropriatereview, evaluation, service development andsustainability of young person-centred services.Recommendations for Providers07 Young people should be involved in thedevelopment and delivery of experientialtraining of both generic and specialist mentalhealth staff across a range of settings, includingprimary care, secondary care, accident andemergency departments, benefits agencies andhousing agencies.08 Each provider should have a strategy foryoung people’s participation that coversoperational policy and practice, strategy and thepresentation of the services and should monitorto make sure that participation is happening.Support and training for young people must bebuilt in to the strategy.09 Services should seek to develop a cohort ofyoung ‘experts’ who can help deliver buddyschemes, peer support and peer navigationthrough services. This will require training, support,supervision and monitoring to be put in place.