50 YEAR OLD LIVERPOOL CHARITY – DEFIES CUTTING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN THE FACE OF SEVERE FUNDING REDUCTIONS. Young Person’s Advisory Service (YPAS) is a mental health charity that has been working with Liverpool’s children, young people and families for over 50 years. Providing a wide range of support and therapeutic interventions, the charity addresses mental health and emotional well-being difficulties in environments that carry a reduced level of stigma.
YPAS is a main 3rd sector delivery provider of Liverpool’s mental health services and as such has been predominantly funded by Liverpool CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) / LCCG (Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group).
The charity is a recognised national beacon for Liverpool; continually recognised for improving access to young people’s mental health services and providing interventions early. In addition to YPAS’s consistently growing services, in the last 12 months alone the charity has opened an additional two community venues in the North and South of the city allowing for the CAMHS partnership to provide a collective menu of services ‘closer to home’, has embedded therapeutic services in all Liverpool’s primary schools (Seedlings Project) alongside PSS Spinning World and introduced advice services in secondary schools and further education (Liverpool Community College).
In 2016 YPAS reached:
2,112 children and young people 415 parents / carers
310 families
48 primary schools
21 secondary schools
In 2016 YPAS provided:
6,326 therapy sessions 4,766 support sessions
550 drop-in sessions
810 hours of targeted group work
This statement is designed to communicate and raise the awareness to Liverpool’s service users and professionals of YPAS’s current funding position. In response to significant national savings sought by NHS England; Liverpool’s Clinical Commissioning Group has unfortunately needed to seek savings from its delivery providers.
YPAS has received a staggering 43% funding reduction to its 2017/18 budget, which will significantly impact on its delivery of mental health services.
What does this mean for Liverpool’s children, young people and families whose lives are impacted by emotional distress and mental health difficulties? How do they now receive a service in an environment that reduces the stigma of mental health? How do they now receive a timely service, early enough to prevent the escalation of their mental health? How do they now have a choice as to where they are seen?
Monique Collier, Chief Executive at Young Person’s Advisory Service (YPAS) said:
“In light of the Governments very welcomed commitment to improving mental health services for children and young people, including access and waiting times, this funding reduction to YPAS’s forward thinking delivery strategy is extremely troubling and short-sighted.
A review of the Five Year Forward View identified that spending on mental health services would continue to be a priority. Unfortunately this funding reduction we are faced with does not reflect that.
The demand for YPAS’s services continues to grow. However, alone we have significantly less capacity to support this. I do not expect this level of funding reduction to impact on the delivery offer of Liverpool’s CAMHS services going forward.
We appreciate that this is going to be a challenging time for children, young people and families, our cross sector referring organisations and for the city as a whole. It is YPAS’s priority to consult and advise with Liverpool’s wider partners and commissioners across Health, Education and Social Care in response to joint working and multi-agency deliver. YPAS will continue to work alongside its CAMHS partnership and commissioners in response to a revised CAMHS delivery plan. Our intention as a CAMHS partnership is to consider how we review our overall delivery model with the primary focus on early intervention and prevention, community provision and improved access to non-stigmatised mental health services”.
YPAS will continually update the city on changes and developments as they occur. We appreciate your support and understanding at this time.
Any questions or concerns, please contact us on 0151 707 1025 or [email protected]
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