The Executive Member for Healthy Manchester and Adult Social Care will provide any relevant oral update to the Task and Finish Group.

The Executive Member for Healthy Manchester and Adult Social Care commented that since the Group had last met the report ‘An Independent Review into the care and treatment provided by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust: Published January 2024’ written by Professor Shanley OBE had been published. He commented that the report contained no surprises to himself, adding that he recognised that this was testament to the honest and often blunt conversations that had been held between the Trust and the Council over the previous 18 months. He commented that this detailed report conveyed the complexity of the challenge that the Trust faced.

The Executive Member for Healthy Manchester and Adult Social Care sated that it was important for the Council and local political leaders to rebuild the confidence in the Trust that had been severely undermined following the BBC revelations.

The Executive Member for Healthy Manchester and Adult Social Care informed the Group that in recognition of the ongoing concerns regarding out of area care, the March meeting of the Provider Collaborative Board would be considering this issue with the intention of agreeing a system wide response to this issue.

The Executive Member for Healthy Manchester and Adult Social Care then invited the Executive Director Adult Social Services to address the Group to describe the actions taken by the Council to support GMMH.

The Executive Director Adult Social Services informed the Group that she had been working with colleagues from the Trust to best support them to help protect the most vulnerable people in Manchester. She commented that through these improved working practices the performance data that was routinely provided by the Trust had vastly improved. She commented that the formal and informal governance arrangements to support GMMH had also improved and been strengthened, adding that initially weekly informal meetings had been established and more formally she Chaired the Assurance and Governance Group meetings. She added that it was recognised that there was still a significant amount of work to be done, especially around the issue of demand and risk, noting that the issue of staff retention and recruitment that had been discussed at previous meetings of the Group remained a national issue. She commented that work was underway to review the levels of social workers in Community Mental Health Teams to ensure that the correct resources were allocated. She added that the importance of mental health social workers and the role they played in regard to earl intervention was understood. She stated that a social worker consultant role would be funded to support staff at GMMH, adding that those staff were under significant pressure. She added that consideration was also been given as to how the Control Room could be best used to support GMMH and the Community Mental Health Teams.  She informed the Group that a workshop would be convened in the next few weeks that would bring partners together from across the local health system to specifically consider the prevention agenda.

Decision

To note the update from the Executive Member for Healthy Manchester and Adult Social Care and the Executive Director Adult Social Services.