YEAR 1 AND PILOT 1 TEES VALLEY OUTCOMESBOND IS AN AMBITIOUS AND GROUNDBREAKING TWO YEAR PROGRAMME, SUPPORTED BY THE DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION UNTIL NOVEMBER 2013.

BOND will increase the availability of effective early intervention services which address mental health issues earlier, are high quality and are young person friendly.

Our sector-led improvement programme is targeted at voluntary and community sector organisations (VCSOs) and their commissioners because children, young people and families trust and value VCSO services, they are close to communities and are less stigmatising. However, without help their early intervention services will remain underdeveloped and underused.

BOND is building the ability of the voluntary and community sector to respond to the needs of schools, local authorities and the NHS and deliver higher quality, better value early intervention services.

Our method is a systems approach in 5 pilot areas bringing together VCSOs, Schools, Local Authority and NHS Commissioners and CAMHS to work together on an intensive improvement programme. The pilot areas are supported by products, online information, roadshows, conferences, national development with community organisations, and communities of learning and practice.

We need help and support early on – not when it’s too late.

We want more trained workers we can talk to, who will look out for us and

our needs and we want to be taught how to be emotionally healthy and

look after ourselves.

Sarah, 14, from VIK, was abused from a young age

and bullied at school.

BOND Capacity Building Training Model

In a short time the BOND programme has achieved major results. In our first Pilot area in the Tees Valley there has measurable change and developments:

• Tees Valley NHS have agreed £125,000 new investment in VCSO delivery of early intervention mental health services as a result of the pilot

• In order to build upon the momentum and success of the pilot, a further £100,000 has been agreed by Clinical Commissioning Groups for VCSO capacity building Voluntary Development Agencies.

• 43 Schools participated in the BOND programme and are continuing working with us. Some school partnerships plan to use the BOND model for their own development of joint planning and commissioning.

• Hartlepool Borough Council plans to make a new investment of £50,000 in VCSO early intervention services in their schools.

• Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Agency is supporting the development of a VCSO consortium to provide universal early intervention services, which are flexible to respond to local needs, identify gaps and contribute to the local strategy for early help.

• The Tees CYP MH Strategic Commissioning partnership plans to prioritise early intervention and to support voluntary sector provision.

Through our capacity building training model, BOND created the opportunity for Schools, CAMHS, NHS, Local Authorities and the Voluntary and Community Sector to learn together, share experiences, models and practice. The training programme influenced how commissioners are planning services and how to make more effective use of scarce resources. This has created a stronger market with more VCSOs able to provide high quality services and be part of a more integrated, system wide approach. BOND has provided the tools for VCSOs to be ‘commission ready’ and grasp the opportunities being presented.

The combined learning from BOND and the action learning set...will help to ‘cement’ foundations for the longer term future and sustainability of mental health support for children and young people...The learning from BOND has truly enhanced our strategic and operational understanding of the VCS working intelligently with education and health commissioners.

Liz Allison, Chief Executive, Families Talking Tees Valley Mediation

The BOND capacity building model:

• Addresses concerns about VCSO service quality, reliability and professionalism through the development of an easy to use commissioning readiness tool.

• Increases understanding of the range and type of early intervention services which VCSOs can address effectively in school and other community settings.

• Addresses commissioners’ lack of knowledge of appropriate services available locally, and VCSO understanding of schools and commissioners requirements.

• Develops mutual understanding of mental health, its impact on children and young people’s outcomes, what ‘works’ and a shared understanding of different the language of education versus mental health for future joint working and pooling of resources.

• Develops working relationships and improved communication across schools, NHS, local authorities and VCSOs to achieve effective planning and services.

CCGs are now investing in VCS development for a further year in order to continue capacity building and build on the excellent work of BOND.

Chris McEwan, Assistant Director, NHS Tees

HEADLINE OUTCOMES IN TEES VALLEY – PILOT 1:

1 to 1 individual support for VCSO’s and Schools

Electronic Learning Environment;access to tools, materials, sign-posting, templates, etc via the BOND website

TIME

Workshop 5Joint commissioner,schools and VCS

workshop

Action plans for progress

Action Learning

Sets

Workshop 4Value for money;

QA and

outcomes

Workshop 3The current environment

forCYP MH services

Workshop 2Commissioning

anddelivery system

Workshop 1Joint commissioner

schools and VCS workshop

Agree programmecontent

SchoolClustersWorkshop

SC1

SchoolClustersWorkshop

SC1

From Pilot 1, our Roadshows and our Breakfast Seminars, some key issues have been highlighted:

• Schools are desperate for specialist help in managing behaviour issues in schools – both primary and secondary – and are often not aware of local VCS services which can provide the support they need

• Language used in education and health creates barriers to joint working

• Schools are confused about alternatives to specialist CAMHS and not confident about their own ability to support mental health problems in school

• The VCSO can provide a helpful and cost effective bridge between education and health, it can fill a vital gap in services and prevent unnecessary referrals to specialist CAMH services.

• VCSOs are frequently providing early intervention mental health services unknown to NHS and local authority commissioners.

• VCSOs are valued and can influence schools and commissioners much more than they expected they would.

• A sector-led approach, enabling a whole system approach to early intervention creates confidence and clarity about improvement needs.

• Building relationships and exploring challenges together with VCSOs, schools, CAMHS and NHS/local authority commissioners pays dividends for all concerned but most importantly for children and young people’s outcomes.

We are now thinking about how we use the collective resource of the VCS locally. We have taken a paper about BOND and our subsequent plans for the VCS to the CYP Trust Executive Board which was supported. We are now having discussion in partnership about how to put this in to action.

Middlesbrough VDA

We have realised that commissioners are people just like us!! We have a lot in common and trying to get to same goals around CYP MH.

Voluntary organisation

OUR LEARNING TO DATE:

ENGAGEMENT

WHAT PARTICIPANTS HAD TO SAY ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE ON THE BOND PILOT

The BOND process has had a hugely positive impact, accelerating our local transformation programme for children’s mental health and helping us to understand the potential of the Tees voluntary sector.

Chris McEwan, Assistant Director, NHS Tees

There was high level engagement in the BOND programme from across the Tees Valley. Participants included:

• 20 voluntary and community organisations and local voluntary development agencies

• 10 Head teachers representing 3 school clusters and 43 schools in total

• 7 Local Authority commissioners from 5 Local Authorities

• 5 NHS commissioners

• 4 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service managers and clinicians

Overall, 92% participants rated the Pilot good or very good. 93% valued the relationship building experience as good or very good, and 100% found the opportunities for networking as good or very good. 77% of voluntary organisations reported a good or very good increase in developing their capacity in relation to CYP mental health.

Following the intensive work of Pilot 1, BOND is providing ongoing support through Roadshows, Communities of Learning and Practice, up to date online information, mapping services, access to ACE-V.

a

The remaining four pilot areas have been selected and work begins in October. The four Pilots are:

• Liverpool, Knowsley and Sefton,

• Cambridgeshire,

• Staffordshire

• South West London

Masterclasses delivered across the country commence in January, Communities of Learning and Practice will roll out from September 2012 supported by online resources.

Resources and workshops to support commissioners will be available from November.

There will be a focus on voluntary and community organisations working with BME, youth counselling, youth justice organisations and schools and a series of targeted training, seminars and resources raising their awareness of the their role in delivering early intervention services to schools, for the NHS and local authorities.

ACE-V is the commissioning readiness tool that enables VCSOs and other services demonstrate their quality, accreditation, value for money and outcome measurements. It will support VCSOs to demonstrate their commission readiness to commissioners. It has been devised and tested by the BOND Consortium, led by the EBPU (Evidence Based Practice Unit). With its own dedicated website and supported by EBPU, BOND has enabled a long term legacy to support quality mental health services across all sectors.

NEXT STEPS

BOND has given schools a chance to consider the mental health needs of their pupils whilst building relationships with commissioners and providers.

Neil Appleby, Headteacher, Rye Hills School, Redcar.

We generated national interest in the BOND initiative illustrated by over 600 subscribers to our monthly progress and news bulletin, and over 19,000 visitors to our website to date, with the resources sections proving very popular.

Charlie Taylor, Advisor to Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, hosted two Breakfast Seminars at DfE to explore early intervention mental health support in schools; one attended by 20 Headteachers from across the country and the second attended by a range of CAMHS and Headteachers. Both emphasised the importance of joint working and shared approaches to the issue of behaviour and early intervention.

Nine Best Practice Exchanges were held in March, across the country, with over 560 registered delegates representing the VCS, local authority commissioners and schools.

82% of participants rated the overall roadshow good or very good. 98% of commissioners attending said they would be more likely to commission the voluntary sector as a result of attending.

By working with VCSOs bond is changing the face of their delivery and is thus transforming the improvement of early intervention from rhetoric to reality

For further information about BOND’s work please visit: www.youngminds.org.uk/bond, email: bond@youngminds.org.uk or call a member of the BOND team on: 020 7089 5050.

WHAT ELSE HAS BOND COMPLETED IN YEAR 1?