£1m Funding Boost for Children’s Services in Sheffield
This comes as the Education Secretary also announced this week that Sheffield will be one of 22 pilots across the country to receive £3 million to improve mental health services in schools.
The money was successfully secured by NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust from the governments national Future in Mind programme, which has provided funding to implement redesign and transformation to Children’s Mental Health Provision.
As part of the new funding, around £300k has been ring-fenced for specific investment into eating disorder services. This money will be used to improve access into these services and to trial new approaches, aimed at improving outcomes for Sheffield children and their families.
Dr Karen O’Connor, GP Commissioner supporting children and adult mental health services for NHS Sheffield CCG said:
“It is fantastic news that we have secured this funding which will enable more children and young people to be treated by mental health services and reduce the length of time they have to wait for services.
It will mean we can put new services in place including a crisis intervention service for all ages and it will improve the early intervention work, particularly in schools.
“We need to improve working together across education, health and social care and with wider voluntary and community based services to transform provision over the next 5 years. These are exciting times for Sheffield and we have a really opportunity to improve provision for children and families.
Councillor Jackie Drayton, Sheffield City Council’s Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families said:
“We have an ambition that here in Sheffield all children, young people and families achieve their full potential. This of course includes attainment, education and emotional health and well-being. This is a further commitment to making sure all children and young people have access to early intervention and prevention services out in their neighbourhoods.
We want to ensure we reach young people and help them with their concerns before they reach a crisis point.
We also want to ensure we stop the escalation of issues in childhood developing into full blown mental health problems in adulthood. Research shows that there is no doubt the earlier you intervene the more can be done to help children and young people.
“Mental health issues, and especially in children and young people, are not given the same priority as other areas of health so this funding will help go a long way to help all agencies working together to achieve a great service here in Sheffield.”
Dr Nevyne Chalhoub, Clinical Director and Consultant Psychiatrist at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, said:
“It is so important that we give children and young people in the city the support they need, when they need it. So we are delighted that by working together with the council and our commissioners we have been able to secure this funding for Sheffield.
“Staff from our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) will be actively looking for ways to build partnerships across Sheffield, so that together we are giving young people the care that’s right for them.”
The funding is part of the NHS England Future in Mind programme, which is a national priority to redesign and improve support and services focusing on children and young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health.
