Issue - meetings

To enable the Cabinet to consider the recommendation made by the Community Leadership Overview & Scrutiny Committee following that Committee’s scrutiny of the Tendring Mental Health Hub.

RESOLVED that the recommendation of the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee be noted and the comments of the Partnerships Portfolio Holder, in response thereto, be endorsed.

Cabinet was aware that, at the meeting of the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 30 November 2020, the Committee had been provided with an overview of the Mental Health Hub which had been launched by the Tendring branch of the Citizens’ Advice Bureau in 2015 with support from Active Essex, Essex County Council, Essex’s Police and Crime Commissioner and Tendring District Council. The hub, located in Clacton, offered an easy single point of entry for referrals from GPs, health professionals, police, and self-referrals. The idea of the hub was to carry out “holistic assessments” of people with mental ill health taking into account all the various factors behind their situation and point them in the right direction for help.

It had been also reported to the Committee that the hub was also staffed mainly by volunteers who had experience of mental ill-health issues, including problems with homelessness, social isolation or income, and helped to give them the confidence to go on to volunteer elsewhere. Volunteers also gained key personal skills, had social contact, and made friends. More than 20% of the volunteers had gone on to mainstream charities, while 12% had gone on to paid employment.

After deliberation the Committee had recommended to Cabinet that:

·           the suggestion from the Chief Officer at Tendring Citizen’s Advice Bureau that the Mental Health Hub services/reach could be expanded if premises closer to the Town Centre in Clacton could be found be actively supported.

The Committee had also formally recorded its support for the hard work carried out by the Citizens Advice Bureau, and its officer, staff and volunteers in delivering the Mental Health Hub in Clacton to address, in part, the challenges of mental health locally.

The Cabinet had before it the following response thereto which had been submitted by the Portfolio Holder for Partnerships:-

“Thank you for your comments about the hard work of the Tendring Citizen’s Advice Bureau. I understand that the Assistant Director, Buildings and Public Realm and Officers in the Regeneration Team have provided advice and guidance to Tendring’s Citizen’s Advice Bureau regarding alternative premises and sites across Clacton.”

Having considered the recommendation submitted by the Community Leadership Overview & Scrutiny Committee together with the Portfolio Holder for Partnerships response thereto:

It was moved by Councillor McWilliams, seconded by Councillor P B Honeywood and:-

RESOLVED that the recommendation of the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee be noted and the comments of the Partnerships Portfolio Holder, in response thereto, be endorsed.