Building VCS capacity to deliver early intervention mental health support
The Department for Education will be providing up to £3M for a two year sector led programme which will build the capacity of Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations (VCSOs) to deliver early intervention mental health support to children and young people, including building resilience and emotional wellbeing.
Over 2,000 schools, 500 VCSOs and 100 commissioning NHS and Local Authority organisations will be engaged and involved in identifying barriers and developing sustainable solutions to achieve the aim of increasing early intervention mental health support for children in the VCS.
The BOND Consortium is made up of seven national organisations with long standing experience in the field of children’s mental health and VCS capacity building, and an assembled specialist team of CAMHS commissioning experts.
Announcing The BOND Consortium as the Department for Education’s preferred bidder Children’s Minister Sarah Teather said:
“Half of all lifetime mental ill health is already present by the age of 14. That’s why it is vital that health and education services work together and intervene early when problems first emerge. Children and young people with mental health problems need good support and treatment so that they stand a better chance of doing well at school and beyond.
“I look forward to seeing the results of the work that voluntary and community organisations are doing to support children and young people across the country.”
Sarah Brennan Chief Executive of YoungMinds, the lead organization of the Bond Consortium said:
“Intervening early has been shown to have critical importance in children and young people’s mental health which the government has rightly recognised in the Mental Health Strategy – No health without mental health. There is a huge challenge for all those involved in supporting children’s mental health in maintaining and building capacity to enable early intervention.
“The Voluntary and Community Sector has a significant role to play in meeting that challenge offering timely, flexible services which are responsive to need and are often more easily accessible than statutory services particularly for children and young people most at risk of poor mental health, such as those in BME groups, children in care and care leavers, and young people in touch with the criminal justice system.
“The government has recognised in creating this opportunity, the Voluntary and Community Sector needs help to develop its capacity without excessive burden or cost and to increase the confidence of all commissioners to invest sustainable funding in the sector.”
Bond programme of work;
- Regional road-shows will start from this autumn to early 2012 promoting the most effective interventions and building on the positive impact of the Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) programme.
- The development and testing of a broad suite of training, tools, guidance and on-line support designed to enable VCSOs to be prepared to bid for early intervention mental health services
- A range of more targeted support will also be offered to BME organisations, school and teenager services and others delivering to the most vulnerable children and young people, helping them to become commissioning-ready through training, coaching, online forums and links to specialist websites.
- A nationwide network and a searchable on-line map of VCSOs currently providing early intervention mental health support services will help potential commissioners to identify the local market. Alongside this, BOND will develop nationally recognised quality standards and accreditation to increase their confidence in the providers who meet them.
- BOND will provide guidance, facilitation and training for commissioners and VCSOs on new approaches and delivery models such as social enterprise and VCSO consortia tenders, and how to engage effectively in delivering the national mental health strategy including the increased access to psychological therapies (IAPT) programme.
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