The programme will be led by the Bond Consortium, made up of national organisations and individuals concerned with mental health and led by mental health charity YoungMinds, and is designed to build the capacity of voluntary and community sector organisations to deliver early intervention mental health support to children.
It is part of a larger Department of Health £32m scheme to enable children from five to- 16-years-old to benefit from successful adult mental health therapies, such as talking therapies. Successful parts of the adult programme will be adapted to use with children and young people.
More than 2,000 schools, 500 voluntary community sector organisations (VCSOs) and 100 commissioning NHS and local authority organisations will be involved in the Bond Consortium programme to indentify barriers and develop sustainable solutions to increase early intervention mental health support for children in the voluntary community sector.
The programme will include:
- regional road shows from this autumn to early 2012, to promote the most effective interventions and build on the positive impact of the Targeted Mental Health in Schools Programme, a scheme funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families between 2008 and 2011;
- the development and testing of a broad range of training, tools, guidance and on-line support to enable VCSOs to be prepared to bid for early intervention mental health services;
- a nationwide network and a searchable online map of VCSOs currently providing early intervention mental health support services to help potential commissioners to indentify what is currently on offer;
- new guidance, facilitation and training for commissioners and VCSOs on new approaches and delivery models, such as social enterprises and VCSO consortia tenders, and how to engage effectively in delivering the national mental health strategy, including increased access to the psychological therapies programme.
Children’s minister Sarah Teather said, ‘Half of all lifetime mental ill health is already present by the age of 14. That’s why it is vital that health and education services work together and intervene early when problems first emerge. Children and young people with mental health problems need good support and treatment so that they stand a better chance of doing well at school and beyond.
‘I look forward to seeing the results of the work that voluntary and community organisations are doing to support children and young people across the country.’
