Accommodation problems for Peterborough residents with severe mental health needs revealed

In 2018/19, work was undertaken to review the arrangements for mental health accommodation providers and autism accommodation based services.

The review established the following gaps and challenges:

. Differing and inconsistent arrangements between providers

. Limited ways to contract with new providers to the market

. Historic arrangements with no common monitoring or performance oversight

. Difficulty in tracking spend and forecast need

. Out of county placements required to ensure need is met

. No long term strategic approach to accommodation services and development of capacity and models

. The opportunity to link up Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council contracting arrangements

. The current Learning Disability accommodation frameworks and associated service specifications do not include a provision for mental health placements.

The current provision across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough comprises of a range of providers.

Following the review, Cambridgeshire County Council, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group and Peterborough City Council have produced a new framework for adult mental health and autism supported living and residential accommodation

This will “ensure consistency of provision across the area” and will “support service users to continue to access to the most appropriate” accommodation, according to a report released by the city council.

Up to £4.26 million from now until June 30, 2025 is due to be spent for the provision of adult mental health and autism supported living and residential accommodation in Peterborough.