Scarborough Hospital health trust drops children's behavioural services

Following extensive clinical and managerial discussions between York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Scarborough and Ryedale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) regarding children and young people’s behavioural services in Scarborough, it has today been confirmed that the Trust has made the decision that it is no longer the appropriate provider for this specialist service.

In December 2018 the Trust informed the CCG of this decision and supported the CCG in identifying alternative specialist mental health providers for these services.

Providers have now been lined up by NHS Scarborough and Ryedale CCG who say families will be written to and informed of the new arrangements for their child as soon as contract arrangements have been finalised.

A parent whose children are currently supported by the service said the move leaves families "high and dry".

However, the CCG insist that services will continue to be provided in Scarborough and that only a small number of children will be referred back to their GP to discuss future care options.

The services which will continue to be accessed locally include children and young people’s autism and ADHD diagnostic assessments, as well as referrals for behavioural problems where there may also be health concerns to be addressed.

The CCG also has made clear that the majority of Community Paediatric and Children’s Therapy services provided by York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are unaffected by the changes and will continue to be provided in Scarborough.

Dr Peter Billingsley, NHS Scarborough and Ryedale CCG Associate Chair, said: “The decision of our local Trust has given us an opportunity to bring forward plans for developing more specialist and tailored services for some of our most vulnerable children and their families, and we will continue to do this over the coming year in partnership with North Yorkshire County Council and others.

“Ultimately, our ambition is to reduce waiting times and speed up diagnosis so we can help more families in Scarborough and Ryedale.

“The Trust is working closely and very positively with the CCG and the new providers to minimise disruption and make sure all of the children who are on the caseload now, and who have been referred in more recently, will be transferred safely and communications will be going out to all those families over the next couple of weeks.”

Across North Yorkshire, clinical commissioning groups are facing similar issues and over the next 12 months the CCGs will be working together to review all behavioural servicemodels.

In the meantime children and their families should continue to access health services through their GP and parents and families who require information or advice are requested to visit the NHS website.