Mental health services for young people in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire to be brought together

A new partnership has been set up to bring together mental and emotional health services for children and young people in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
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The partnership is made up of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, Centre 33 and Ormiston Families.

Together, they will help build relationships across the mental health and care system to ensure clinical services, voluntary organisations and local authorities work closer together to support children and young people with their mental health and wellbeing.

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The partnership - which is expected to start delivering services from July 1 - has been set up with joint funding from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council.

A new partnership has been set up to bring together mental and emotional health services for children and young people in Cambridgeshire and PeterboroughA new partnership has been set up to bring together mental and emotional health services for children and young people in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
A new partnership has been set up to bring together mental and emotional health services for children and young people in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough

It follows consultation with children and young people across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who said they find the number of services available and how to access support confusing.

A spokesperson for the CCG said: “We know how important mental health support is for our children, young people and their families and we are committed to investing further in local services, which is why we have set up a new partnership to bring together mental and emotional health services for children and young people across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

“Over the coming months we will be working with this partnership to improve the mental health support offer for our 0 to 25 year olds, and we will be listening to children, young people and their families’ experiences to ensure we put their needs first.”

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Anyone who is currently receiving support or requires access/referral for support will continue to receive services as they do now.

Peterborough Citizens, which has helped set up meetings between Peterborough pupils and health chiefs in recent months, welcomed news of the partnership.

It said: “We are delighted that Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group in partnership with Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council are launching a new service supporting young people’s mental health in the county.

“We are particularly pleased that this new service will provide a single point of referral for young people seeking to access support and help.”

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Ormiston Bushfield Academy pupil Rebekah Flintoft said: “Since the beginning of this campaign students have been saying that they find accessing support for mental health difficult and confusing.

“The introduction of a single point of referral should make accessing support easier.

“We welcome this initiative and we look forward to continuing to work with the CCG and (MP for Peterborough) Paul Bristow to ensure, first, that Peterborough gets its fair share of available resources for young people’s mental health and, second, to increase funding for children and young people’s mental health services in the city.”

James Mepham, deputy head of sixth form at Thomas Deacon Academy, added: “I am delighted that the work that the mental health team are doing is starting to bear fruit.

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“Navigating a complex system has come up time and time again as an issue and I really hope this latest initiative from the CCG helps address this problem.”

One of the first tasks of the partnership will be to launch a single point of referral for all the services to make it easier for young people to navigate and access the right support when they need it.