Issue - meetings

Purpose of the item: To update the Select Committee on Surrey Heartlands’ Recovery Programme.

Witnesses:

Helen Coe, Recovery Director, Surrey Heartlands

Helen Rostill, Director of Mental Health Services, Surrey Heartlands

Giselle Rothwell, Associate Director of Communications and Engagement, Surrey Heartlands

Liz Uliasz, Assistant Director of Mental Health, Adult Social Care

Diane Woods, Deputy Director of Adult Mental Health Commissioning, Surrey Heartlands

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Recovery Director stated that the Covid-19 recovery work had been ongoing since the first wave of the pandemic in March/April 2020. The recovery work included a major priority of restoration of services following the first wave and the report demonstrated that Surrey Heartlands was having considerable success prior to Christmas 2020 (when the second wave hit) in tackling the backlog that built up following the first wave and reopening elective care services. NHS England monitored the performance of Surrey Heartlands’ recovery programme against a trajectory. There had been mutual aid between providers throughout the recovery, and some positive changes had been made to the system, such as the introduction of virtual consultations.

2.    The Director of Mental Health Services said that the surge in mental health demand and acuteness had accelerated since Christmas 2020 and that the mental health impact of the current lockdown would likely be seen for some time to come. A weekly cross-sector group had been set up to look at mental health pressures and immediate actions that could be taken. Surrey Heartlands was looking at supporting people in their homes in order to improve their mental health; for example, by conducting deep cleans or providing furniture. There was also wraparound support for people with autism and mental health needs. Measures were being put in place to ensure people had support when being discharged from hospital. The Assistant Director of Mental Health explained that Surrey County Council Adult Social Care (ASC) had established a hospital discharge team to work with Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SABP) and were looking to appoint an occupational therapist as part of this. There had been a significant number of young people experiencing mental health crises, and Surrey Heartlands was looking at providing additional resources to tackle this.

3.    The Assistant Director of Mental Health added that district and borough councils were working with SABP to provide longer-term housing for people with mental health needs.

4.    A Member asked how Surrey Heartlands was monitoring the capacity of the third sector to support the recovery. The Recovery Director replied that Surrey Heartlands had activated the ‘surge’ ability, which enabled them to take over six independent providers to use their resources and facilities. This was being monitored daily in partnership with NHS England.

5.    A Member enquired how capacity and demand were aligning in terms of autism support and how Surrey Heartlands was coping with specific areas of need. The Assistant Director of Mental Health stated that a social worker with a specialist autism and mental health background had been appointed in order to help people with autism and mental health needs to access resources.

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