NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) have announced they will be investing an additional £615,500 in children and young people’s mental health support.

This funding has been committed in partnership with Sheffield City Council, as part of Sheffield’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Strategy for Children and Young People.

The funding, which was agreed at the CCG’s governing body earlier this year, will come in to place in April 2019. Some of the funding will be used to sustain and expand Door 43, which is based at Star House in Sheffield City Centre and provided by Sheffield Futures and Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust.

Door 43 provides a holistic range of support for young people aged 13-25 including support for mild emotional wellbeing issues, education and housing. The aim of Door 43 is to support young people at the earliest possible point, before their needs escalate and they require more specialist support.

Dr Girish Vaidya, Associate Clinical Director at NHS Sheffield CCG and Clinical Director at Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust Community Wellbeing and Mental Health Division, said: “We will be increasing investment into Door 43 by 45% in recognition of the positive impact the service has had, and the positive feedback we have received from young people.

“This investment will help enable Door 43 to expand to support a greater number of young people. This expansion also supports one of the key aims of our Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Strategy, which is to increase early intervention support for children and young people’s mental health in Sheffield.”

The money provided by NHS Sheffield CCG will also go towards sustaining a number of transformation projects, including work to engage young people in commissioning and services provided by Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.

As well as providing the Section 136 Health Place of Safety in Sheffield for young people in crisis, Sheffield Children’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) also provides a number of other services including Healthy Minds in schools, which is a programme that provides a whole school approach to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of pupils, which this funding will support.

Councillor Jackie Drayton, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families said: “What a fantastic investment into children’s mental health, I can’t express the importance of helping our children and young people to get the support they need. There’s a great number of services in Sheffield, including the ‘Future in Mind’ work in schools, our online counselling service launching in April and the great work at Door 43 and I’m thrilled that this large amount of money will be put into these services, making them easier to access and helping young people get support at the very earliest opportunity.”

This recurrent investment reflects NHS Sheffield CCG’s commitment to investing in children and young people’s mental health, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan. They continue to work with partners to further improve support for, and investment in, children and young people’s mental health across the city.