Agenda and draft minutes

Councillors Dale Rooke, and Tony Kear, with Councillor Alistair Neill as a substitute for Councillor Kear. 

Councillor Penny Jones declared a personal but non-prejudicial independent member of ABUHB and Chair of Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Committee. 

Councillor Bond declared a personal but non-prejudicial interest as a psychotherapist and a volunteer for Base Camp in Chepstow. 

Alistair Neill a personal but non-prejudicial interest as an independent board member of Digital and Healthcare Wales. 

None. 

Megan Escott introduced the report and answered the members’ questions: 

Megan explained that Mind Monmouthshire had submitted a letter and report to the Putting Things Right department after Christmas, highlighting serious concerns arising from their work with clients, supported by case studies. She described a follow?up meeting on 27^th January with the local Community Mental Health Team (CMHT), where the team acknowledged the issues raised and were apologetic. A key problem identified was persistent difficulty contacting CMHT, including unanswered calls, voicemails, and emails, which she stressed was due to lack of resources rather than the commitment of staff. She noted high sickness levels within CMHT, leading to missed opportunities to intervene when clients were reporting suicidal thoughts. Megan highlighted recent improvements following the meeting, including direct escalation contacts, the recruitment of two new Community Psychiatric Nurses, better communication, and CMHT inviting Mind to attend ward rounds to strengthen joint working. 

• Are Mind Monmouthshire’s services free to clients, how are they funded, and is there a waiting list? I am also interested in whether earlier or broader provision could help prevent people reaching crisis point. 

The service is free to clients and is funded through the Welsh Government’s Housing Support Grant, specifically to support people experiencing both mental health challenges and housing difficulties. There is a waiting list, but it is actively managed so that individuals waiting for full support receive weekly phone calls to monitor risk and ensure any emerging crisis is identified quickly. A strong emphasis is placed on early intervention, with clients being signposted to counselling or therapy wherever possible, as this can often prevent escalation to more serious crisis situations. 

• Do you signpost people to alternative or additional community?based providers, such as Base Camp, to reduce pressure on statutory services and support people earlier? 

Yes, signposting to other providers is a routine part of the approach. Clients are regularly referred to community?based and lower?level support services where appropriate, including Base Camp, and the Pathways scheme is also used extensively. This wider, preventative approach helps meet people’s needs earlier and can reduce the likelihood of individuals reaching a crisis point that requires intensive statutory mental health intervention. 

• What impact are staff shortages and high sickness levels within the Community Mental Health Team having on service users and on the wellbeing of the staff themselves? 

Informal discussions with Community Mental Health Team staff indicate that the pressures they are working under are having a significant impact on their wellbeing. There have been situations where staff acknowledge that an individual urgently needs assessment but there is nowhere suitable to refer them. Spending prolonged periods responding to people in acute crisis, while knowing there are insufficient services available, is extremely distressing and helps explain the high levels of sickness within the team.

• Given that funding and capacity pressures across public services are unlikely to improve significantly in the near future, what more can be done within communities themselves to help support people with mental health  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4a

Dr Emily Clark delivered a presentation, delivered opening remarks with Liz Andrew and Jackie Williams, and they answered the members’ questions with Megan Escott: 

Questions from Members: 

• Do we have sufficient and meaningful local data to understand suicide trends in Monmouthshire, particularly causes and drivers, and how confident can we be in comparisons between areas? 

Local data is limited in its ability to show clear cause?and?effect relationships. Much of the real?time suspected suicide surveillance data is provisional and can overestimate final figures, while confirmed Office for National Statistics data arrives with significant delay. Suicide remains a relatively rare event, meaning that small changes in numbers can create apparently large differences in rates. At present, Monmouthshire’s figures fall within normal statistical variation, and ongoing monitoring rather than firm conclusions is required. 

• If Monmouthshire appears relatively high in headline rates compared to places like Newport, why are pilot interventions not being targeted there first? 

The suicide prevention service being referred to has not yet launched and is being introduced on a Gwent?wide basis rather than targeted to one local authority. The pilot is designed to operate across the whole health board area so that access is consistent and learning can be shared, rather than concentrating resources in a single locality based on early surveillance figures.

• Are the national patterns showing higher suicide rates among men reflected locally, and what factors appear to be contributing to this?

Men presenting locally with suicidal ideation often face multiple, overlapping pressures such as family breakdown, housing insecurity, substance misuse, isolation, and prolonged stress linked to legal or statutory systems. It is often difficult to separate cause from consequence, as mental health issues and social problems frequently reinforce one another. These complex patterns align with national observations, even if precise local causation is hard to quantify. 

• How are people who are digitally excluded, particularly older residents or those with limited access to technology, able to access mental health and suicide?prevention support when so much information is provided online through platforms such as the Melo website? 

Digital exclusion is recognised as a real issue. All content on the Melo website can be printed and shared in paper form, and partners are encouraged to do this through frontline services such as GP practices and community settings. Libraries are also used through national schemes such as Reading Well. Training and support are available face?to?face as well as online, and efforts are ongoing to ensure information is accessible to people who cannot use digital services. 

• Is additional practical support available to help people who are digitally excluded to engage with services, for example through devices, data provision, or technical assistance? 

Additional support is available at higher levels of need. Device?loan schemes, data provision, and technical support sessions are used to help people access online therapy or support where digital barriers would otherwise prevent engagement, particularly for those living in rural areas, experiencing poverty, or unable to attend services in person. 

• Are there specific  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4b

The minutes were agreed, proposed by Councillor Howells and seconded by Councillor Garratt.

The minutes were agreed, proposed by Councillor Howells and seconded by Councillor Garratt.

The Scrutiny Manager informed members that the Committee meeting scheduled for 28^th April had to be rearranged. This was because the item planned for that meeting, involving the Chief Constable of Gwent Police to discuss community safety, police resources, and outstanding scrutiny issues from December, could not proceed as intended. She advised that this meeting would be rescheduled for after the election, and members would be informed of a new date in due course.

She confirmed that the next diary?planned meeting would now be on 8^th June, and that this meeting would focus on an update from National Highways, with Johnny Hill due to attend. She noted that the Committee typically schedules one substantive agenda item per meeting, as demonstrated by the current session, to allow sufficient time for in?depth scrutiny and detailed discussion. 

There was a request to scrutinise the Public Services Ombudsman’s Report (Action: to timetable this for members to highlight any areas for future scrutiny). 

Strategic Risk Assessment – for us to look at that for the Public Services element? (Action: to be invited to P&O meeting on it and/or for PS to invite separately after that

Monday 8th June 2026 at 10.00am.