Agenda item

Chris Clark, Doncaster MBC, to present

Chris Clark, Doncaster MBC, gave the following powerpoint presentation on the 2 year funded project for One Adoption South Yorkshire overseen by RAA Leadership programme for Centres of Excellence on the development of a FASD Pathway:-

Staffing

-        All staff were now fully employed and the commissioning agreement completed.

-        There were:-

Project Manager – 3 days per week

Assistant Education Psychologist – 2.5 days per week

Senior Education Psychologist – 1 day per week

Education Psychologist - ½ day per week

Business Support – 3 days per week

Key Project Deliverables

-        Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Pathway development and implementation

-        Education Psychologist contribute towards support for adopted children with FASD in school

-        Work with the Integrated Care Board (ICB) to develop an understanding of effects of FASD and develop initial support services

-        Reduction of temporary/permanent exclusions for adopted children with FASD

-        Development of SEND support plans for adopted children with FASD

-        Work with Virtual Schools to design a single integrated offer across South Yorkshire

-        Education Psychologist to link with universities, national and international research to develop approaches for supporting children with FASD

-        Education Psychologist will work directly with adopted children affected by FASD

Key Challenges

-        Recruitment to all positions

-        Identifying numbers affected by FASD in South Yorkshire

-        Benchmarking to demonstrate impact

-        Identifying clinical staff as part of Assessment and Diagnosis Working Group

-        Measuring the impact of the project across the 2 years due to FASD being currently under identified

-        Ensuring development of FASD pathway was scalable beyond the One Adoption Service

Work to Date

-        Formation of Steering Group

Oversight and guidance of project

-        Sub-Board

Oversight of working groups and feed into Steering Group on progress, issues and key decisions

-        Prevention and Awareness Working Group

Led by Angela Fawcett (Deputy Chief Nurse) and Mandy Craig (SCSP Vulnerability Manager)

-        Intervention and Support

One Adoption South Yorkshire including service users with lived experience

-        Assessment and Diagnostic

First meeting arranged for 5^th February

Working Group key attendees

Assessment and Diagnostic – Considerations

-        What does diagnosis/assessment look like

-        Who does the diagnosis

One Service

Multi-disciplinary team

Clinical or non-clinical with relevant training

Public or private service

-        When/how to identify who needs diagnosis

-        Separate assessment or part of a neurodevelopment pathway assessment

Next Steps

-        Work with Neurodevelopmental Working Group through ICB

-        Identify clinical lead for Assessment and Diagnosis (A&D) Working Group

-        Identify who needs to be part of Assessment and Diagnosis Working Group

-        Set up initial meeting programme

-        NICE Quality Guidelines:  how to implement for FASC

-        Consider funding options: 2 year funding, Adoption Support Fund, other

Useful Links

-        National FASC –Home - National FASD

-        FASD Learning with Hope –FASD: Learning with Hope – Our family's journey toward a bright future (wordpress.com)

-        NICE Quality Standards –Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (nice.org.uk)

-        Me and my FASC – Me and My FASD - Me & My FASD

Discussion ensued on the presentation with the following issues raised:-

-        It was hoped to link the project in with the neurodevelopmental pathway, however, the difficulty currently was getting the correct people involved with the Neurodevelopmental ICB Group

-        Attempts were being made to ensure it was part of the whole pathway and separate.  Currently there were separate assessments and the FASD assessment appeared to be the last resort after all other routes explored first.  There were close links with ASD and ADHD disorders to get the diagnosis

-        Currently the only specific clinics for a FASD diagnosis were in the south of England, Edinburgh and Glasgow

Chris was thanked for his presentation:-

Resolved:-  (1)  That the presentation be noted.

(2)  That a further presentation be made in 12 months to ascertain the impact and progress of the project.