Mental health checks for children entering care set for trial
Neil Puffett
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Children entering the care system will be given mental health checks on a trial basis, the government has announced.
Speaking in parliament yesterday education minister Lord Nash said the Department for Education will test new approaches to mental health assessments for looked-after children in as many as 10 pilot areas. The pilots are set to launch by May 2017.
The announcement comes just two months after the government rejected calls from the education select committee for all looked-after children to be assessed by a mental health specialist when they enter care.
Nash said the DfE is in the early stages of working out how the checks will be conducted and is keen for both providers, and children and young people, to help develop and shape the model, but added that the pilot mental health assessments will be trailed as part of the existing health assessments that children receive when they are taken into care.
He added that the trial will run in parallel to the considerations of an expert working group, co-chaired by former president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services Alison O'Sullivan, which has been tasked with developing care pathways for looked-after children with mental health difficulties.
"We have not settled on the number of pilots, but our initial thinking is that between six and 10 would be sensible," he said.
"We believe that running pilots in a number of local authority areas, potentially on a regional basis, to look at how mental health can be better assessed as part of the wider health assessment, will be complementary to the work of the expert group.
"It will also help to inform the implementation of any of its recommendations. These pilots will also guard against treating mental health in isolation from physical health and ensure that we address the needs of the whole child in a holistic manner."
Nash's announcement came during the third reading of the government's controversial Children and Social Work Bill in the House of Lords. Earlier this month peers voted to remove plans to allow councils to be exempted from children's social care legislation from the bill.
