NEW FUNDING TO BUILD MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE LINKS WITH ETHNIC MINORITY COMMUNITIES

More than a million pounds is being made available to fund 40 new projects across England as part of a drive to build stronger links between local mental health services and people in black and ethnic minority communities. A first wave of community engagement sites has already been set up to work with communities and service providers to raise awareness of mental health issues, reduce levels of fear and improve support for patients and their carers.

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CONSULTATION LAUNCHED ON IMPROVING EARLY YEARS SERVICES

A public consultation has begun on ways to meet the needs of individual children and their parents, including a call for closer working between local authorities, Strategic Health Authorities, Primary Care Trusts and Jobcentres Plus. The exercise has been launched by the Department for Education and Skills around new guidance produced jointly with the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Department of Health.

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The toolkit, published by the Improvement and Development Agency, was designed to help councils take a balanced approach when assessing how well they support carers. It was developed by four councils recognised as beacons of good practice, with the cooperation of Carers UK and the carers’ leads at the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.The toolkit comprises a balanced scorecard, strategies and a questionnaire for carer feedback. The scorecard is designed to assist councils in pulling together data that should be readily available into one central location. This will help demonstrate a range of activities that support carers and ensure that the performance indicator C62 is seen in context of an overall strategic approach.

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