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1. Introduction

1.1 The National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services establishes clear standards for promoting the health and well-being of children and young people and for providing high quality services which meet their needs.

1.2 There are eleven standards of which this is the ninth. They cover the following areas:

  • Standard 1 - Promoting Health and Well-being, Identifying Needs and Intervening Early
  • Standard 2 - Supporting Parenting
  • Standard 3 - Child, Young Person and Family-centred Services
  • Standard 4 - Growing Up into Adulthood
  • Standard 5 - Safeguarding and Promoting the Welfare of Children and Young People
  • Standard 6 - Children and Young People who are Ill
  • Standard 7 - Children and Young People in Hospital
  • Standard 8 - Disabled Children and Young People and those with Complex Health Needs
  • Standard 9 - The Mental Health and Psychological Well-being of Children and Young People
  • Standard 10 - Medicines for Children and Young People
  • Standard 11 - Maternity Services

1.3 This Standard addresses the mental health needs of children and young people and should be read in conjunction with Standards 1-5. Standards 1, 2 and 4 describe further mental health promotion interventions for children, young people and their families. Standards 6 and 7 describe the additional mental health needs of children and young people who are ill or who are in hospital. All professionals caring for children and young people who require medicines should also address the issues covered in Standard 10. 'Primary care' is used in this Standard to describe all first line services who have contact with children and their families. A further description of the language and terms used in this Standard can be found in Appendix 1.

Vision

We want to see:

  • An improvement in the mental health of all children and young people.
  • That multi-agency services, working in partnership, promote the mental health of all children and young people, provide early intervention and also meet the needs of children and young people with established or complex problems.
  • That all children, young people and their families have access to mental health care based upon the best available evidence and provided by staff with an appropriate range of skills and competencies.

Standard:

All children and young people, from birth to their eighteenth birthday, who have mental health problems and disorders have access to timely, integrated, high quality, multi-disciplinary mental health services to ensure effective assessment, treatment and support, for them and their families.

Markers of Good Practice

1. All staff working directly with children and young people have sufficient knowledge, training and support to promote the psychological well-being of children, young people and their families and to identify early indicators of difficulty.

2. Protocols for referral, support and early intervention are agreed between all agencies.

3. Child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) professionals provide a balance of direct and indirect services and are flexible about where children, young people and families are seen in order to improve access to high levels of CAMH expertise.

4. Children and young people are able to receive urgent mental health care when required, leading to a specialist mental health assessment where necessary within 24 hours or the next working day.

5. Child and adolescent mental health services are able to meet the needs of all young people including those aged sixteen and seventeen.

6. All children and young people with both a learning disability and a mental health disorder have access to appropriate child and adolescent mental health services.

7. The needs of children and young people with complex, severe and persistent behavioural and mental health needs are met through a multi-agency approach. Contingency arrangements are agreed at senior officer levels between health, social services and education to meet the needs and manage the risks associated with this particular group.

8. Arrangements are in place to ensure that specialist multi-disciplinary teams are of sufficient size and have an appropriate skill-mix, training and support to function effectively.

9. Children and young people who require admission to hospital for mental health care have access to appropriate care in an environment suited to their age and development.

10.When children and young people are discharged from in-patient services into the community and when young people are transferred from child to adult services, their continuity of care is ensured by use of the 'care programme approach'.

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