Red Kite View ‘Not just a building’
Work is well on track for the projected November handover of Red Kite View, the new home and physical embodiment of our Children and Young People’s Mental Health Service. Here Nik Lee, Operational Manager, writes about the whole project and its aim to be an outstanding service and centre of excellence.
I’m a mental health nurse by background and I’ve worked in mental health and learning disability services since I was 18. I started out as a support worker with adults with severe learning disabilities and as a healthcare assistant on the wards but working with young people was my passion as I understood what they were going through.
In college I completed an NHS cadetship before taking my nursing diploma and I worked my way up to senior clinical and management positions across a range of inpatient and community CYPMHS services.
I moved into management so that I could be part of making change while also completing a degree in child and adolescent mental health, and currently a master’s in management practice and business. I’m looking forward to managing the inpatient service at Red Kite View when it opens in December.
Since qualifying I’ve always worked in CYPMHS as I think it’s the place you can make the most difference, and despite the constant challenges I still believe that.
I’ve been involved in the project for around 18 months, helping develop the PICU – psychiatric intensive care unit – and some of the clinical pathways and other areas have really progressed in that time.
There is a lot of work going on with the team as we roll out the training plan, recruit to key posts, develop both our clinical model and the team, and review our policies and procedures, in preparation to care for 22 young people across the GAU – general acute unit – and PICU.
Our aim is to be an outstanding service and a centre of excellence. That is not easy to achieve but is something we are committed to. We need to ensure that our clinical care is of high quality and that we are at the forefront of research and development in children and young people’s mental health, linking with local universities and partner agencies.
We also want to influence community CYPMHS across West Yorkshire and change the function of inpatient admissions. They should be an extension of community work and not a separate intervention, and we have a real opportunity to embed that with Red Kite View and the ‘Provider Collaborative’.
Our CYPMHS Provider Collaborative is part of a collaboration between our West Yorkshire NHS Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism providers. These are Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
The CYPMHS collaborative is led by LYPFT on behalf of colleagues and means that we in West Yorkshire will take responsibility for commissioning and providing specialised CYPMH services locally, rather than regionally by NHS England. Read more about Provider Collaboratives on the West Yorkshire Integrated Care System website.
This shift in commissioning structure will put Red Kite View at the centre of those services in supporting some of our most complex and challenging young people. We have a responsibility not just to provide excellent care on the unit, but also to ensure that care is continued in the community so that admissions are not prolonged and hopefully not repeated.
These are lofty ambitions, especially in these difficult times, with such an increase in mental health problems regionally and nationally and especially for those requiring an admission. Ultimately, we want to reduce the need for inpatient care and reinvest in the community where young people should be, living their lives and thriving.
As Dawn Hanwell, our Deputy Chief Executive, said in the previous issue of this newsletter: ‘We’re doing this for the kids.’
Red Kite View is more than just a building. My focus is ensuring we have the best service for children, young people and families across West Yorkshire.
Read more about the development of Red Kite View on our website.