Download a PDF copy of our Annual Report
Hertfordshire MHLDA HCP Annual Report 2022-2023 (5MB pdf)
Foreword
We are delighted to bring you the first Annual Report of the Hertfordshire Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Health and Care Partnership.
We believe that partnership working is vital if we are going to deliver a healthier and happier future for people with mental illness, learning disabilities and autism. When we bring together the insight and expertise of local organisation and communities, we can make tangible improvements to people’s lives. Our Health and Care Partnership helps us to do this. It has successfully built strong relationships across, health, social care and our voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sectors so that we can focus on issues which require our collective effort.
This year, we have developed new strategies around Dementia and around Physical Health that will enable us to change how people are supported and be held to account for making it happen. We have transformed how people can access and receive help and support. We have delivered a new way of supporting neurodiverse young people and reduced the number of young people waiting too long for this diagnosis. We have developed accessible information that helps people to access the right support at an earlier stage and in the most appropriate setting for them. Throughout our work, we have been led by the expertise of people with lived experience and the insights of staff and volunteers who support people. We are pleased that co-production and the active engagement of people and communities with lived experience underpins our partnership work and we are committed to developing this even further over the next year.
There is still much more to do. Our Health and Care Partnership needs to develop further, so that we can better support the growing number of people who require help and maintain a focus on the long-standing inequalities faced by people with mental illness, learning disabilities and autism.
We have an ambitious schedule of work planned for the year ahead and look forward to working with you to support people in Hertfordshire to live longer, healthier and happier lives.
We believe that partnership working is vital if we are going to deliver a healthier and happier future for people with mental illness, learning disabilities and autism.
Karen Taylor and Chris Badger, Co-Chairs of the Hertfordshire Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Health and Care Partnership
Who we are
The Hertfordshire Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Health and Care Partnership (MHLDA) brings together the NHS, local government, and the voluntary, community, faith, and social enterprise sector to deliver our shared vision – “Supporting people living with a mental illness, learning disability, and/or autism in Hertfordshire to live longer, happier and healthier lives.”
Our Health and Care Partnership Board includes the following partners:
- Hertfordshire Partnership University Foundation Trust
- Hertfordshire County Council
- Healthwatch Hertfordshire
- Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust
- Viewpoint
- West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
- General Practitioners/Primary Care
- Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board
- Carers in Hertfordshire
- Mind in Mid Herts
- East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
- Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust
- Change Grow Live
- Herts Mind Network
Our Health and Care Partnership works with networks, organisations and communities across Hertfordshire. For example, our most recent Dementia event involved a wide range of stakeholders including our district and borough councils, our town and parish councils, Hertfordshire Constabulary and the University of Hertfordshire.
What we do
The Hertfordshire MHLDA HCP prioritises activity and issues which require the collective knowledge, skills, expertise and resources of partner organisations and communities – from addressing backlogs in ADHD assessments to thinking about the type of workforce we will need to support people in the future.
Our activity is focussed on delivering improvements against our four guiding principles:
- Providing a strong mental health, learning disability and autism voice across the system
- Ensuring safe, high-quality mental health, learning disabilities and autism support and services across Hertfordshire
- Preventing people from becoming unwell and promoting positive heath and wellbeing
- Integrating physical and mental health support and services
How we do it
We provide leadership, system structure and transformational expertise to:
- Transform pathways of care and support
- Design strategic solutions for conditions that impact individuals with mental illness, learning disabilities, or autism
- Prioritise prevention and positive health and wellbeing
We have developed our structures so that we can lead transformation across Hertfordshire and ensure that our activity is informed by people with lived experience and our clinical, professional and practice staff.
- Herts MHLDA HCP Board
- Clinical and Professional Advisory Committee and the Co-production Group
- LD&A Strategic Partnership Board
- CYP Emotional & Mental Wellbeing Board
- Primary & Community MH Transformation Steering Group
- Crisis Care Partnership
We recognise our role to support and collaborate with other system partnerships, including the Drug and Alcohol Board, the Suicide Prevention Board, the VCFSE Alliance and the other Health and Care Partnerships across Hertfordshire.
What we’ve achieved
We have transformed how people can access and receive help and support.
Cost of Living
In response to the cost-of-living crisis, we prioritised activity so that people with existing mental illness could access the advice and support they need. This included delivering Mental Health First Aider and Suicide Prevention training to volunteers working in Warm Spaces venues, embedding mental health workers in food banks across the county and linking Citizens Advice workers with local mental health support services.
ADHD Pathway for Children and Young People
Recognising the numbers of people waiting for an ADHD diagnosis, we co-designed a new model for diagnosis and ongoing treatment, bringing together colleagues across different parts of the NHS and Primary Care. This model is up and running in South and West Hertfordshire and starting to reduce the number of young people waiting.
Investment in the Community
To better support people in Mental Health crisis, we have directed funding towards services in our communities, including a wellbeing centre and Crisis Café in Welwyn Hatfield and upgrading existing buildings to make them more suitable to support both adults and children who require support.
As a member of the Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Health Care Partnership Board Carers in Hertfordshire has had a really meaningful opportunity to speak up on behalf of unpaid carers. We have been able to bring the carers’ voices to the table where colleagues have been ready to listen and reflect upon the issues that matter to them.
Roma Mills, Policy and Engagement Manager , Carers in Hertfordshire
We have developed new strategies that will enable us to change how people are supported.
Physical Health
People with learning disabilities and people with serious mental illness are dying at a much younger age than the rest of the population. This Strategy sets out the activity that all organisations need to undertake to address this inequality, including making sure that all services are as accessible to people with learning disabilities, autistic people and people living with mental health conditions as they are to the rest of the population.
Hertfordshire Dementia Strategy
It is estimated that by 2030 there will be over 20,000 people living with dementia in Hertfordshire. This strategy sets out the activity required across health, social care and wider partners to achieve our vision of a county where people affected by dementia have access to timely, skilled and well coordinated support from diagnosis to end of life, which helps them to achieve outcomes that matter to them. Read the Hertfordshire Dementia Strategy.
Our partnership allows us to collaborate with others to shape the future of health and social care. Together, members approach health and wellbeing holistically for Hertfordshire, examining the system for opportunities that create change and parity for mental health equally with physical health.
Sharn Tomlinson, Chief Executive Officer, Mind in Mid Herts
Our ambitions for the year ahead
We have ambitious plans for the year ahead. Key areas of activity include:
Children and Young People – Neurodiversity
We will be leading work across partners to develop a model of diagnosis, care and support for children and young people who are, or who are suspected as being, neurodivergent. By working collaboratively across health, social care, education, voluntary sector providers and with people and families with lived experience, this model will provide clear and consistent information, advice and support across Hertfordshire.
Suicide Prevention
We will work alongside the Hertfordshire Suicide Prevention Board to implement a new Hertfordshire approach to providing care and support to people who have attempted suicide or who have suicidal ideation. This will involve identifying and then putting in place the interventions that staff across our different partner organisations can undertake to provide better, more timely and more appropriate support.
Mental Health support in the community
We will expand the number and range of organisations able to support people’s mental wellbeing in their communities. We will be working closely with our GP colleagues to ensure that Mental health, learning disabilities and autism features heavily in work to develop new Integrated Neighbourhood Teams so that people can receive more joined-up support at an earlier stage.
Workforce Development
We will invest our energy in developing how we recruit, retain and support a workforce that is able to support the increasing numbers of people who require help and support. We will also focus on how we support people with learning disabilities, autism and with mental health conditions to access and maintain paid employment, since we know the positive impact that this can have on their lives and life-expectancy.
Dementia Strategy and Physical Health Strategy
We will deliver on the objectives of these two strategies and will coordinate activity across different organisations so that we can provide the best, joined-up support that we can. We will be able to show how working in this way helps to deliver real changes in local services and support
Championing Reasonable Adjustments
We will support the implementation and roll-out of the Frailty and Learning Disability Risk Assessment tool so that people with learning disabilities receive an appropriate assessment and have access to all the necessary support.
We thank you for your continued support in our efforts to create health and care transformation.
In partnership with the HCP, we’ve been able to help shape community care projects that involve cost of living, workforce development, mental health, and crisis care. The HCP supports Hertfordshire Mind Network’s continued provision of 24/7 Crisis Support to residents who are experiencing mental health crisis. The culture of the HCP is one of collaboration, committed involvement with the VCFSE sector and always puts residents at the heart of decisionmaking.
Jo Marovitch, Chief Executive, Hertfordshire Mind Network