An action plan has been put in place to improve communication between children’s mental health services and the hospital paediatric ward after a report found that a “difficult relationship” between the two provisions was impacting care provided to young islanders.
Published earlier this year, the report was based on an inspection of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service carried out by the Jersey Care Commission in November 2024, alongside an external review team from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Among the 14 recommendations and two areas for improvement was that CAMHS staff should “work on improving their relationship with the paediatric ward”.
The report said: “Parent and carer feedback has highlighted their experience of a difficult relationship between CAMHS and the hospital paediatric ward.
“Issues such as poor communication and negative interactions between the teams have raised worries about the quality of shared care arrangements for their children.
“These concerns were echoed in frontline staff interviews, who acknowledged challenges in their interfaces with the ward.”
The report also compiled feedback from parents and carers of children under CAMHS.
One said: “The relationship between Robin Ward and CAMHS is horrible. If anything needs to change it’s the relationship between [the] hospital and CAMHS as this impacted on family experience.”
Reviewers recommended that the relationship between CAMHS and the paediatric ward could be improved through additional training and more regular meetings.
The report said: “While joint meetings to discuss admissions and support staff are beneficial, additional steps such as providing training for the ward and scheduling regular catchups could further enhance collaboration and support.”
This week, the Children’s Minister said that there were “positive indications” that the relationship between CAMHS and the paediatric ward was improving.
Constable Richard Vibert told the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel: “We’re confident that staff between the departments are working together, and key to both of them is care for young people admitted for mental health support.
“There’s an action plan in place between CAMHS and HCJ that has identified a number of joint initiatives to improve work practices.”
He added that this has been overseen by a children’s governance oversight group, and has featured document working protocols, a CAMHS inpatient protocol, additional training, and improved communication – including joint work between the lead nurses of both departments.
“There’s been progress,” added the Children’s Minister. “We’ve put things in place to improve that relationship and there are positive indications from that.”