The South West London (SWL) Mental Health (MH) commissioning team, responsible for NHS mental health services in Merton, Croydon, Sutton, Kingston, Richmond, and Wandsworth, has changed. As part of the management cost savings process, the six borough-based MH commissioning teams were replaced by a centralised team that oversees mental health services across all age groups.
The new centralised team operates across all six boroughs with team members now managing services for all ages, rather than being age-group specific. Their scope is much wider than before.
The team operates both top-down (from system to place level) and cross-boroughs (ensuring awareness of developments across all six boroughs to enable efficient cross-cover and system-oriented service delivery).
Key team members and their contact information:
- Kingston: Jeanne Faulet-Ekpitini (jeanne.faulet-ekpitini@swlondon.nhs.uk)
- Richmond:Arlene Thomas-Dickson (arlene.thomas-dickson@swlondon.nhs.uk)
- Merton: Fiona Murray (fiona.murray@swlondon.nhs.uk)
- Wandsworth: Urvi Makwana (urvi.makwana@swlondon.nhs.uk)
- Sutton: Simon Chanase (simon.chanase@swlondon.nhs.uk)
- Croydon: Sian Kirk (sian.kirk@swlondon.nhs.uk)
- Director of Mental Health Transformation: John Atherton (john.atherton@swlondon.nhs.uk)
- Head of Mental Health Transformation: Hina Rahimi (hina.rahimi@swlondon.nhs.uk)
This new structure replaces the six boroughs (Merton, Croydon, Sutton, Kingston, Richmond, and Wandsworth) individual MH commissioning teams which previously had a Children’s Mental Health lead, a CAMHS lead, and an Adult Mental Health lead
Over the last year, financial governance has also gone through change with new national requirements (i.e. providers selection regime now defines how the NHS has to proceed with any procurement. Previously there was a greater degree of flexibility regarding contracting and procurement. There have been a few cases where contracts and payments have been subject to delay which the team is addressing.
Future Plans
The SWL Mental Health commissioning team is adapting to its new centralised model. They aim to:
- Continue addressing vacancies within the team.
- Increasingly look at doing things on a South West London foot print and having a universal approach across the six boroughs, with a core offer for adults and children. There are a range of interesting ideas/initiatives that have been piloted in individual boroughs and could be rolled out at system level.
- Maintain a balance between universal service delivery and borough-specific needs, keeping in mind the boroughs are very different and have different populations they need to serve.
- Ensuring contracts set up under previous governance models align with the new financial requirements.
The new Learning Disability and Autism commissioning team
There is a separate LDA commissioning team, lead by Alison Kirby (alison.kirby@swlondon.nhs.uk), that covers Learning Disability and Autism; very similarly to the Mental Health commissioning team, they also have one place lead per borough of similar seniority and have gone through a restructure.
