Adult community mental health services
Find out about our adult community mental health
services improvement review with the Healthcare
Commission.
The improvement review will assess key community services within
local implementation team (LIT) areas.
It will look at services that contribute to mental health
and social care services for adults aged between 18 and 65.
The scope of the review will include:
- mental health trusts and health and social care trusts as
providers of services
- PCTs as commissioners, and where relevant as providers of
specialist community mental health services
- local authority councils as providers and commissioners
- local voluntary and independent sector services.
The results of this assessment will feed
into:
- annual performance assessment of councils in 2006 and 2007
- annual health check ratings for relevant NHS organisations in
England in 2006.
What happens next
2006: information from the data collection
together with our evidence about local authority activity will
inform the performance assessment process.
2007: information from the targeted fieldwork
will form part of the evidence base for performance assessment of
those councils involved in follow up activity.
How we got here
We worked with the Healthcare Commission on some pilot
review sites in 2005 to test the review methodology.
The pilot sites represented the wide diversity of the
populations served by councils and the NHS in England.
We analysed health and social care information from the pilot
sites along with nationally available health and social care
data.
This process was used to determine what on-site follow up
activity we needed to pursue. It has also has helped to
inform our future review methods.
We are keen to make sure we fully consult the Association of
Directors of Social Services with the further development of
fieldwork methodology, and that we seek their approval.
Our joint framework
To provide a basis for this assessment we have have developed a
joint framework with the Healthcare Commission .
The framework includes a range of criteria that we will use to
assess performance in community mental health services.
The criteria cover a range of themes and outcomes that people
who use services have consistently identified as important.
The assessment framework
In August 2005 an earlier version of assessment framework was
circulated to a wide variety of organisations, staff and service
users from both health and social care.
The main revision to the framework is an assessment of
implementation of certain recommendations across community mental
health teams from the NICE Guideline for Schizophrenia (2002).
Timetable
Here is a timetable for the improvement review.
March 2006
- Publication of the finalised assessment framework
April 2006
- ‘Bespoke’ data collections from organisations where
relevant
2 June 2006
- Final cut off date for submission of data (confirmed date)
July 2006
- Final assessment produced from framework using national and
bespoke data, and LIT communities notified
November 2006
A joint selection panel of CSCI and Healthcare Commission
managers met in early September and identified the
following 11 fieldwork sites for follow up activity:
- Brighton and Hove
- Halton
- Hillingdon
- Manchester
- Oxfordshire
- Portsmouth
- Staffordshire
- Stoke
- Stockport
- Tameside
- Wandsworth
The selection was based on Local Implementation Team (LIT)
scores from the Assessment Framework, and contextual social care
data.
The work involves joint teams that include:
- CSCI service inspectors who inspect social care
services provided by councils
- Healthcare Commission (HC) Senior/Assessment Managers
- Experts by Experience (supported by MIND).
The teams will take part in a maximum of five day’s
fieldwork.
This reflects a light touch approach that focuses on areas for
development highlighted through the data.
Find out more
If you have any comments or questions about the improvement
review please email enquiries@csci.gsi.gov.uk