CAMHS stays put at DH

CAMHS services will remain within the Department of Health (DH) despite the decision to make responsibility for the broader promotion of mental health and well-being a shared responsibility with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

A DH spokesperson said: ‘The DH is still responsible for CAMHS; however, we do work alongside DCSF on the issue.’ A DCSF spokeswoman said the joint approach was designed to ensure that issues did not ‘fall through the gaps’, particularly in the area of joint-working between schools and health services. But the operational details of the new ‘dual key’ arrangement are yet to be clarified: ‘We’re still looking at the best way to make that happen,’ she continued.

Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health director of public affairs Andy Bell was among those who welcomed the new holistic emphasis: ‘Schools are in a tremendous place to promote mental well-being, both in the classroom, but also in whole-school approaches to issues like bullying and its effect on the mental well-being of pupils,’ he said.

But National Children’s Bureau chief executive Paul Ennals, while welcoming the approach as a whole, had concerns about the lack of detail: ‘We’ve always known that mental health services are not just NHS but also involve schools and other children’s services,’ he said. ‘But in the real world, mainstream children’s’ services can often find tier 3 mental health services hard to access. ‘There’s a feeling that mental health services are different from other types of mental health promotion. The more we can get them seen as a continuum of support, the better.’

YoungMinds head of policy Kathryn Pugh said joint responsibility would have to go further than mental health promotion. Departments would have to work together to ensure children were properly supported in schools, and also referred to clinical services when that was needed; capacity at specialist level would also need to increase. ‘I expect them to be putting support in place to give robust training and supervision in schools in being able to identify what they can support, and what they can’t,’ she said.

'More referrals are inevitable as universal services get better at identifying children and young people [with mental health problems] in the early stages, and make sure capacity is there. If we don’t, we will set up more barriers between universal and specialist teams.’

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