West Midlands CAMHS Provider Collaborative
Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is the Lead Provider of the West Midlands CAMHS Provider Collaborative (WMCPC) - an integrated provision of specialist mental health, learning disability and autism services, for young people aged 12-18.
Provider collaboratives like ours have been established across England to encourage closer regional partnership working. This means that for the first time, pathway and budget management is WMCPC’s responsibility, giving us the autonomy and opportunity to reinvest savings into community and step-down services that our region’s young people need the most.
Here in the West Midlands - and across the country – those who need an inpatient admission experience either a long wait for a bed or are admitted to hospitals far from home.
We hope that by working collaboratively, using local data and listening and engaging with our service users, we will be able to reduce the number of young people admitted to inpatient services, drive down length of stay, bring care closer to home and ultimately improve the outcome and experience of every young person we see.
All of the following organisations form part of the WMCPC:
- Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
- North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust
- Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
- Schoen Clinic Newbridge
- Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust
- Priory Healthcare Limited of Priory Group
- Herefordshire & Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust
- Cygnet Joyce Parker
- Elysium Healthcare
- Active Care
Tier 4 CAMHS referral Coordination Hub
The West Midlands CAMHS Provider Collaborative (WMCPC) launched a new 24/7 centralised referral Hub for CAMHS Tier 4 referrals in the region on the 1 November 2021. The ‘Coordination Hub’ offers a referral coordination and bed finding service 24/7, 365 days per year. All referrals go directly to a single point of contact for screening by the clinically informed referrals coordination and bed finding team.
This is supported by an internal spoke operated by the Darwin Centre for local system knowledge.
CAMHS admission criteria is in accordance with the NHS England (NHSE) Service Specifications for CAMHS Inpatient Units. Guidance can be found below:
Tier 4 CAMHS general adolescent service specification
Tier 4 CAMHS Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) service specification
The Coordination Hub covers the following Integrated Care Boards (ICB):
- NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB
- NHS Black Country ICB
- NHS Coventry and Warwickshire ICB
- NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB
- NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB
- NHS Hereford and Worcestershire ICB
0121 333 8840 | Email: bwc.westmidsreferralcoordinationhub@nhs.net
The Darwin Centre
The Darwin Centre covers the following ICBs:
- NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB
- NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB
The Darwin Centre (WMCPC CAMHS Tier 4 Referral Co-ordination Spoke)
01782 275015
Making a Referral
If you are a Mental Health clinician and would like to make a Tier 4 referral for a young person then please complete the attached Form 1 or call the referral hub on 0121 333 8840 to discuss.
Intensive Residential Outreach Care (IROC)
An evidence-informed pathway for vulnerable children with complex psychological needs, IROC (Intensive Residential Outreach Care) is a new mental health support provision for children and young people aged 13-18, with complex psychological trauma and vulnerabilities.
A three-year pilot scheme for the West Midlands, IROC provides an enhanced systems support service offering a comprehensive, coordinated and multi-agency consultation, formulation and intervention service. It balances the understanding of individual and systemic strengths and needs, alongside a clinical framework that draws on the evidence base and is psychologically informed.
IROC aims to reduce the number of young people being admitted unnecessarily into mental health and residential care facilities, reduce placement breakdown and instability and reduce out of area placements. It is also for those who are subject to full and interim care orders and looked after children under section 20 of the Children’s Act.
The IROC team consists of professionals with significant experience from psychology, nursing and occupational therapy who will work closely with care providers, health agencies, social care and education providing psycho education, training packages and clear and structured care planning.
The work of IROC will give professionals the added confidence in stabilising and managing challenging and risky behaviour as well as improve relationships, increase resilience and develop supportive and trauma-informed language and ways of working. The IROC service and clinical framework is underpinned by systemic collaboration and co-production and will be subject to a robust evaluation and outcomes programme.
Partners working with us as part of IROC include Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust, Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust and Priory Healthcare.
For further information and initial case discussions, please email: bwc.irocteam@nhs.net
Clinical Advisory Panel (CAP)
The Clinical Advisory Panel (CAP) is a multi-disciplinary team of expert clinicians who work with children and young people within a range of inpatient CYPMHS, Forensic and Learning Disability/Autism and community settings across the West Midlands.
This formal panel is held to discuss complex cases and provide advice regarding treatment, using clinically relevant documentation to support clinicians’ decision making.
If you are a clinician and would like to present a case at CAP, please contact the CAP Lead on 0121 333 8840 or email: BWC.WestMidsreferralcoordinationhub@NHS.net
For any general enquiries about the WMCPC please email: bwc.wmcpc@nhs.net
Co-Production
Within the West Midlands CAMHS Provider Collaborative (WMCPC), co-production is really important. Put simply it is about a mindset that brings together the sense of a balanced professional relationship and partnership between those with lived experience expertise and those with clinical and care expertise. WMCPC’s Experts by Experience proactively collaborate with clinicians and commissioners to develop high-quality, effective and efficient services for young people, to improve recovery outcomes and reduce readmissions, in line with the collaborative’s objectives.
Experts by Experience are involved and co-produce decisions associated with the WMCPC to ensure we create excellent care and compassion from a youth lens. This includes participation in workstream meetings and contributing to partnership board meetings. The group also review documents that will impact young people, creates co-production strategies and is currently trying to set up a lived experience speakers’ collective for service users with lived experience or carer experience of inpatient CAMHS.