Child and adolescent mental health services transformation plan

Following a major review of Hertfordshire’s CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) in 2015, the resulting transformation plan secured national funding to improve services over the next five years.

At least one in 10 children in Hertfordshire have a diagnosable mental health problem, and many more will need some support to prevent more serious difficulties from emerging. Work is well under way to transform mental health services for children and young people living in Hertfordshire.

Hertfordshire’s two NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), East and North Hertfordshire CCG and Herts Valleys CCG, which buy health services for county’s population, are working with Hertfordshire’s Health and Wellbeing Board, Public Health, Hertfordshire County Council and other partners to develop and implement the mental health and wellbeing transformation plan for children and young people in Hertfordshire.

Key priorities are to:

• Focus on prevention and early intervention to give children and young people good emotional and wellbeing support

• Improve access for children and young people to psychological therapies

• Bring together education and mental health services for children and young people with joint training

• Develop community eating disorder services

• Improve perinatal care, particularly for mums-to-be and new mothers, as there is a strong link between parental (particularly maternal) mental health and children’s mental health

Local Transformation Plans are refreshed each year and an updated version is published. 

You can read Hertfordshire’s Local Transformation Plan for Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing, updated for 2019 here. The Hertfordshire CAMHS Local Transformation Plan has been refreshed for 2021 and can be found here in the form of an infographic highlighting key achievements made since 2015, outlining the objectives of the NHS Long Term Plan, and summarising the Hertfordshire CAMHS System priorities as we look to the future.