The COVID-19 pandemic has had a big impact on our mental health. If you are aged over 16 and living in County Durham or Darlington you can receive support from the Talking Changes service.
If you are under the age of 16 you can receive support from the Community Mental Health Team for Children and Younger People.
Due to a high level of demand, there may be a wait for some types of therapy but you will be offered ongoing support and advice whilst you wait for treatment.
Mental Health Investment Standard
The Government is committed to improving Mental Health services in England and has released significant funding to CCGs as part of its 5-year Mental Health Implementation plan. To achieve the improvement in its Mental Health services each CCG must meet the Mental Health Investment Standard (MHIS), by which their annual investment in mental health services rises at a faster rate than their overall published programme funding. Expected compliance against the MHIS is reported monthly through the Financial Performance Framework under which CCGs operate and published in the Annual Statutory Accounts. From 2018/19 an additional assurance requirement has been introduced for each CCG’s auditors to validate their reported year-end position against MHIS target. The assurance work was designed to assure NHS England that Mental Health spend was comprehensive, complete and classified correctly against the 15 Mental Health reporting programmes. DDES and North Durham CCGs (which merged on 1st April 2020 to form County Durham CCG) commissioned Mazars LLP to undertake this assurance work.
The CCG statement of Compliance and Mazars LLP reasonable assurance reports are published below for your information for the financial years 2018/19 and 2019/20.
2019/20
MHIS reasonable assurance report North Durham CCG
MHIS reasonable assurance report DDES CCG
MHIS compliance statement North Durham CCG
MHIS compliance statement DDES CCG