My previous post reported on the progress being made by local areas as they make their commitment to improve mental health crisis services in line with the principles set out last February in the mental health Crisis Care Concordat.
I am delighted to now be able to say that every upper tier area in England has made their commitment – their local crisis declaration – and all are available to read on the Crisis Care Concordat website.
For those of you who have been following the development of the website’s map of progress, as I have, it is a matter of celebration that all areas are now showing as at least amber, indicating that a declaration has been made. Indeed, some are already green, meaning that they have gone one step further and agreed an action plan.
Getting to this stage has required strong local leadership, and real determination to coordinate and negotiate agreements. My thanks to all the people who have worked so hard to make this happen - people working in local authorities, for health and wellbeing boards, in police departments and police and crime commissioners’ offices, in NHS local teams, clinical commissioning groups, and mental health strategic clinical networks. You have all helped to make a difference.
It is important to recognise just what these declarations represent – they mean that people all over the country can be assured that the agencies working for them in response to people in mental health crisis – the police, the ambulance service, the social services department, and NHS emergency and mental health services – are working together to make improvements to the ways that their services join up and support the people who need them.
As I mention above, some areas - North West London, Surrey, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester and Derbyshire - are ahead of the game and have already submitted their local action plans. These plans are also available on the Concordat website and are really starting to show the kind of innovative thinking that the Concordat is encouraging – new support services including street triage schemes, joint training and strengthened partnerships, refreshed crisis care pathways, a renewed focus on what should happen to children and young people in crisis, and making links with housing services.
The action plans, most of which are expected in the first quarter of 2015, backed with the Department of Health's and NHS England’s commitments in Achieving Better Access to Mental Health Services by 2020, will make sure that improved crisis care will be embedded in services for the years to come, meaning that more people will receive the urgent support they need in the face of mental health crisis.
Finally, as this is my last blog post of the year I wish you all the very best for 2015. Happy New Year!
