1.  Welcome and introductions

Introductions were made around the table.

2.  Matters Arising

SP QAF supplementary objectives, are Service User involvement and the Living Environment.

It was noted that the recent re-launch of the LIT was very well attended by the group and their service users.

3.  Strategic Update

Change in Mind. Following the consideration of an independent thematic analysis of the feedback from the Change in Mind consultation, The Joint Committee has agreed the changes as set out in the Change in Mind consultation document are to be implemented.
The group were informed of the recommendations that will be heard by Manchester City Councils Overview and Scrutiny Committee for ratification later today. Full details of the recommendations can be found on the following website: www.bestforhealth.nhs.uk This decision will go back to the Joint Committee in July for the final decision to be made.
The proposed changes were seen as positive by the group and it was recognised that it will ease current pressures within the whole sector. JCT 10 year Commissioning Strategy. A document has been drafted and will be circulated once all JCT team members have had chance to comment and it has been checked and amended for grammatical errors etc. It will be circulated to the group and wider as soon as it is available.

4 Updates from around the table

(LA) Referrals for the newly reconfigured Making Space floating support service are now steadily coming in for consideration. Making Space is currently undergoing a national restructure. It is part of a five year plan for the organisation. Four new regional director posts have been advertised.

(AM) People First have been awarded an SP tender in Tameside to provide a new floating support service to 16/17 year olds in conjunction with Housing Options. It is to start in July and Amanda will be managing the service

(NA) Wilbraham Rd service are extremely busy at the moment. One new member of staff has been appointed. Nicola explained the restraints that the current funding levels has on the service. This is due to no uplift in MHG and very little uplift in top-charges over the last 5 years. It will be difficult to meet SP new QUAF supplementary objective- the living environment, as there is no funding available to upgrade the living environment. Negotiations with the landlord are taking place but it doesn’t look hopeful. Both Nicola and Elena attended a Hearing Voices conference this week and both thought that it was excellent. They were inspired by the service user involvement aspect of HV and circulated information about a forthcoming event: Hearing Voices Day – September 14th 2006 at their national office – 79 Lever Street Manchester and all were encouraged to attend. For more info on this please contact Hearing Voices – tel: 0845122 8641. email: info@heaing-voices.org

(AB) Annie is covering the development of Praxis as Mark Edwards has left the organisation. She will alternate with Assistant Director, Tracy Lindeque to ensure a smooth transition to the forthcoming opening of the service. This is expected to be 1st September 2006. A programme of building work is being carried out. Praxis are interviewing candidates for Mark’s replacement on 26th June. Two support workers are in place and two more have been appointed and awaiting CRB checks. One admin staff is also due to start soon.

(VK) Richmond Fellowship are moving offices from Longsight to Rusholme and will be holding an open day in September.
Vanessa encouraged the group to attend a forthcoming NIMHE conference on women’s mental health issues – 5th July 2006, HYDE. More detail to follow. Vanessa will be holding a stall to raise awareness of the work that RF do in the field of women who have experienced sexual abuse in childhood.

(JA) Joy reported that the JCT has expanded its role and responsibilities and team members following the reconfiguration of the (what was) Gtr Manchester SHA. Chris O’Gorman is now the lead for the Gtr Manchester Mental Health network and a team of four staff based at Gateway House, Piccadilly. The already established team have responsibility for; Gtr Manchester collaborative commissioning, commissioning of secure and specialist placements and workforce developments. Following this development four new appointments are to be advertised:

1. A new associated head post.
2. A sessional clinical advisor
3. A sessional service user advisor
4. A full time admin post.

 Joy and Craig Harris have additional responsibilities and are now involved in the Grt Manchester network: Collaborative Commissioning. The original section of the team based at Mauldeth House will soon be advertising two new posts:

1. Service Redesign and Contract Manager.
2. Finance Manager.

5.  Future Meetings.

 Following the recent launch of the LIT (Local Implementation Team - which is a requirement of the NSF. made up of Service Users, Senior Representatives of organisations, mental health teams, the carers forum and voluntary sector) it has been agreed that the current Mental Health provider forum merges with the LIT. Therefore this group will no longer function in its current format. This has several advantages for group as it will enable:

1. The group now has more formal input and involvement into current mental health issues as driven by NSF standards.
2. The group now has more formal input and involvement in implementation of the Change in Mind proposals.
3. An Accommodation Strategy will come from the JCT 10 year Commissioning Strategy which the LIT will oversee thus avoiding duplication.
4. It will give the group a higher profile within the sector.

Please bring your service users! It has been commented on how impressed organisers were that new people attended the re launch of the LIT, offering input which provided valuable contribution to the issues. The LIT will be quarterly events. It is anticipated that future LITS will follow the structure of the last event which was; business/presentations in the morning, LUNCH, then workshops/group work in the afternoon. Themes from the last LIT have been collated. Accommodation issues were raised and these will be addressed. To be distributed at a later date. It was expressed by the group that they find the provider forum, informative and useful especially the networking opportunity and hopefully this will continue at the LIT events. The group were thanked for their continuous input and enthusiasm and the merge was positively accepted.

6 Date and time of next meeting.

The next LIT will be 4th September 2006 at the Mechanics Institute. (11am – 3pm)