We identified gaps in access to Berkshire West’s mental health services for children and young people and made recommendations for improvements.
Objective
Berkshire West Integrated Care Partnership set out to improve the emotional wellbeing and mental health of all children and young people living in the area. They sought help from SCW to identify and address gaps in access and services due to inequalities.
What we did
We focused on three cohorts of children and young people: ethnic minority groups, those with a learning disability, and LGBTQ+ people. We set out to understand the needs of these cohorts, and possible barriers and gaps to service provision.
With support from Mental Health Support Team leads, we conducted in-person focus groups with people from these cohorts. We also engaged with the staff working with these cohorts and evaluated responses to a 2021 staff survey.
To understand the level of need currently not being met, we mapped existing provisions and analysed the gaps. We also looked at what local charities or local organisations were doing to support each cohort in the area to gain an understanding of how the wider system is contributing to meeting the needs of these cohorts.
From these insights, we proposed recommendations to Berkshire West to enhance and improve their service provision.
Activity
Healthy children
Communications and engagement
Mental health - enabling solutions
Health inequalities
Outcome
Our recommendations fed into a feasibility review conducted by Berkshire West Integrated Care Partnership.
Changes will form part of their Local Transformation Plan and will reinvigorate service provision to ensure that existing and new services are accessible to children and young people from the three chosen cohorts. They will also help to raise the profile of all services and access arrangements to empower children and young people and their families to seek the support required.
