Kent Transformation Plan for children and young people

In order to develop transformed emotional wellbeing and mental health services across Kent, key partners (including Clinical Commissioning Groups and Kent County Council) have developed the Kent Local Transformation Plan for Children, Young People and Young Adults’ Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health.

We have looked at local and countywide needs, as well as provision and good practice, and have developed and designed a new whole-system for Kent which puts children, young people and young adults at the heart of services. The plan draws on the voice of the child, families and professionals, and articulates how we will move towards a future which is transformed with how we see and how we respond to emotional wellbeing and mental health for our whole population.

Since publishing our first version in December 2015, we have been required by NHS England to produce an annual refresh. We refreshed our plan in October 2016, October 2017 and again in October 2018. The Local Transformation Plan sets out how we will meet the challenge and commits to systemic and cross-cutting solutions across organisational and geographic boundaries.

The key areas of transformation within the 2018 Local Transformation Plan are to:

• increase the offer for those at greatest risk (prioritising those affected by adversity): we will meet the needs of our vulnerable populations, ensuring evidence-based and effective interventions for our looked after children, care leavers, young offenders and those who are LGBTQ
• continue to work with providers, schools and the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) to develop a more effective pre and post-assessment pathway, including support for families and schools
• deliver services and support from birth to 25, ensuring that support is no longer shaped by a cliff-face at age of 18 but responds to the individual needs of a young person as they follow their own unique path to adulthood. We are working towards moving existing resource and contracting arrangements over the next four years to achieve true 0 - 25 services
• invest in increasing access to early intervention support to ensure that children and young people are able to access the right service at the right time
• prepare for the 10-year plan which was announced in July 2018 by Simon Stevens, and will include a focus on mental health services for children and young people
• reduce inequality by reducing geographical variation in the number of children and young people accessing service