Papers for the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) Integrated Care Board meeting of 29th July 2025 included an update on the development of the NENC assertive and intensive community mental health action plans, so it felt appropriate that we question the Board about mental health.
The model of Assertive Outreach is under review nationally, low cost changes have been made in the NE, and more extensive service change is on hold pending financial help from the Government. Our question to the Board focuses on whether the additional cash from the Government will actually materialise, and whether there will be any knock-on negative change to the service (eg: cuts or staff reductions to other parts of the service) to accommodate the outcome of the Assertive Outreach review.
Our Question to North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, 29th July 2025
Dear ICB
Supporters of “Keep Our NHS Public North East” recognise the work of the NENC ICB and NHS Trust providers of mental health services in producing the paper at item 16 (Integrated Care Board meeting, 29th July 2025) on Assertive and Intensive Community Mental Health. This paper states that; “There has been national acknowledgment that the major transformation of services cannot be achieved without additional funding allocation and the system awaits further detail on this.”
Given the current situation in which mental health trusts are required to make very significant cost reductions during 2025/26 (7% across the whole system), and within the context of year on year cuts, please advise:
1) Have all of the four NHS Trusts been required to cost out their draft action plans?
2) Given current financial constraints, does NENC ICB expect that further funds will be made available from the Government for major service transformation, and will this additional funding recur annually?
3) How and when will NENC ICB make public any differences between the estimated costs from the Trusts and the actual additional funding received from the Government?
4) What impact will any major transformation of services within Assertive and Intensive Community Mental Health have upon the same or other areas of service delivery within the mental health trust? Please provide links to or copies of the impact and risk
assessments. We fully understand the principle that it is crucial to continually look to ways to improve services to meet the needs of clients – but we are also interested and concerned about any potential reduction in clinical services or staffing that may be brought about by the requirement to make these identified changes within Assertive and Intensive Mental Health.
I thank you for your attention
John Whalley
=============================================
konpnortheast.com 