Behavioural services in Scarborough – statement
Following extensive clinical and managerial discussions between York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Scarborough and Ryedale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) regarding children and young people’s behavioural services in Scarborough, the Trust made the decision that it is no longer the appropriate provider for this specialist service.
In December 2018 the Trust informed the CCG of this decision and supported the CCG in identifying alternative specialist mental health providers for these services.
These providers have now been lined up by NHS Scarborough and Ryedale CCG and families will be written to and informed of the new arrangements for their child as soon as contract arrangements have been finalised.
A small number of children will be referred back to their GP to discuss future care options.
The behavioural services included in the new provision will include children and young people’s autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnostic assessments, as well as referrals for behavioural problems where there may also be health concerns to be addressed. These services will continue to be provided in Scarborough.
The majority of Community Paediatric and Children’s Therapy services provided by York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are unaffected by these changes and will continue to be provided in Scarborough.
Dr Peter Billingsley, NHS Scarborough and Ryedale CCG Associate Chair, said: “The decision of our local Trust has given us an opportunity to bring forward plans for developing more specialist and tailored services for some of our most vulnerable children and their families, and we will continue to do this over the coming year in partnership with North Yorkshire County Council and others.
“Ultimately, our ambition is to reduce waiting times and speed up diagnosis so we can help more families in Scarborough and Ryedale.
“The Trust is working closely and very positively with the CCG and the new providers to minimise disruption and make sure all of the children who are on the caseload now, and who have been referred in more recently, will be transferred safely and communications will be going out to all those families over the next couple of weeks.”
Across North Yorkshire, clinical commissioning groups are facing similar issues and over the next 12 months the CCGs will be working together to review all behavioural service models, alongside partners including GPs, the local authority, children and their families to see how services can work better together to develop a robust and sustainable model and reduce the waiting times for these behaviour services going forward.
In the meantime children and their families should continue to access health services through their GP as required, and if parents and families require information or advice they are requested to visit the NHS website when seeking assistance in addressing behaviour concerns at https://www.nhs.uk/
Parents, families or carers can access North Yorkshire County Council services for advice, information and support which includes the Healthy Child Programme (Health Visitors and School Nurses) by visiting the websites below for details:
- www.northyorks.gov.uk/our-partners-and-commissioned-services
- http://cyps.northyorks.gov.uk/autism
- www.northyorks.gov.uk/send-specialist-support-and-inclusion
There are also a number of charities which provide useful information and support around children’s behaviour issues:
- www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk/
- www.autism.org.uk
- www.nipinthebud.org/child-mental-health-conditions/recognising-adhd
If there are any other identified health needs or concerns then families should contact their GP for advice, support and onward referral as required to other core health services which can address these health needs.