North Yorkshire Council
Executive
12 May 2026
Targeted Healthy Child Section 75 - planning and delivering Community based emotional wellbeing support for Children and Young People
Report of the Corporate Director Corporate Director Children and Young People Service.
1.0 PURPOSE OF REPORT
1.1 This paper asks Executive on 12 May 2026 to support a key decision to consult on a new Section 75 partnership agreement with Humber North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board for the planning and delivering of Community‑based emotional wellbeing support for Children and Young People.
1.2 It further requests that following completion of the consultation the Executive Director of Children and Young People’s Service be given delegated authority for the final Section 75 sign‑off in consultation with Children and Young People Service Executive Members
2.0 SUMMARY
2.1 In March 2022 North Yorkshire Council entered into a Section 75 agreement with NHS Humber North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (North Yorkshire Place) and NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (Bradford District and Craven Place) for the funding of the Targeted Healthy Child Service for Emotional Wellbeing. NHS Humber North Yorkshire ICB are the lead commissioner for the service. Tees Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV) currently hold a subcontract with Compass Phoenix to provide the service. The contract and Section 75 agreement is due to end 31 March 2027.
This paper asks Executive to support a key decision to consult on a new Section 75 agreement for planning and delivering Community‑based emotional wellbeing support for Children and Young People. It further requests that following completion of the consultation the Executive Director of Children and Young People Service be given delegated authority for the final Section 75 sign‑off in consultation with Children and Young People Service Executive Members.
3.0 BACKGROUND
3.1 Governance
The current Section 75 agreement is overseen by an Integrated Commissioning Group and receives the quarterly reports from the service.
Both NHS Humber North Yorkshire ICB, NHS WY ICB and NYC are invited to the quarterly TEWV led Service Contract Meetings.
3.2 Scope of the Section 75 and Current service offer
3.2.1Current aims of the Partnership Agreement and Integrated Commissioning Group
· Improve the quality and efficiency of the Service (s) in scope.
· Meet the national conditions and local objectives related to Children and Young People’s Emotional Wellbeing.
· Create the foundations that empower greater levels of innovation and best practice across North Yorkshire.
· Ensure the collective resources of the Partners are spent on a shared understanding of collective need.
· Expand and embed the good practice delivered through formalising and strengthening partnership working.
· Improve prevention of health and care needs arising, early intervention and steps to avoid people’s needs from escalating.
· Remove duplication from the system to improve people’s experience.
· Commission services that build on both individual strengths and our strengths across the system.
· Enable cross organisational working that finds solutions to move forward together and deliver greater productivity and increased efficiency.
It is proposed that the aims of the Partnership Agreement will remain the same.
3.2.2Current Service in Scope
The current service is for children and young people between the ages of 9-19 oryoung people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) up to age 25, affected by low to moderate level emotional wellbeing issues.
The aim of the service is to improve outcomes for children and young people’s mental health by strengthening the range of mental health support available to children and young people. This includes:
- Early interventions for children and young people experiencing mild to moderate emotional and mental health difficulties. This is primarily around low mood and anxiety.
- Contribute to schools developing a whole school approach towards emotional and mental well-being through the delivery of training and consultations.
- Contribute to the whole pathway of support within the iThrive model in North Yorkshire providing support in the ‘Getting Advice’ and ‘Getting Help’ quadrants.
The service continues to deliver high levels of access and activity in the context of sustained and rising demand. Access targets are consistently met or exceeded. Referral‑to‑assessment performance remains strong and generally within national Mental Health Services Data Set expectations. Referral‑to‑treatment times remain challenging, reflecting demand exceeding available 1:1 capacity employed within the budget available.
The expansion of group workshops and digital interventions, alongside a ‘group first’ pathway model, has improved flow, mitigated waiting list growth and enabled faster access for suitable cohorts, particularly younger children. The BUZZ US text messaging service continues to provide a valued and accessible route for support, particularly for young people in crisis.
Children, young people and families report predominantly positive experiences of the service. While the contractual KPI of 90% positive experience is not consistently met, this is largely attributable to low response volumes, which amplify the impact of individual responses. Qualitative feedback consistently highlights staff compassion, professionalism and responsiveness.
As with much of the Social Emotional Mental Health system there are demand and capacity pressures with fluctuating waiting times for intervention, but overall there are no current performance concerns and the service has continued to adapt its model and communication methods effectively to meet the increasing complexity and demand.
3.3 National considerations
· Government commitment to roll out Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) to all schools – these are not supposed to replace the main community-based offer of low-moderate support but be both additional to the existing offer and be integrated within the system. However, there may be some duplication of offer as the MHST service is expanded over the next few years, and the actual service specification of the Targeted Healthy Child programme will need to evolve in accordance with changes in the wider system.
4.0 DETAILED PRESENTATION OF THE SUBSTANTIVE ISSUE
4.1 Currently there is confirmed funding across North Yorkshire Council and the ICBs for the service and The Go-to website. It is proposed that at this time these are the services that will be in scope for the agreement, and a new service specification will be developed collaboratively within the partnership.
However, it is proposed the current aims of the Section 75 are replicated within the new agreement and this allows sufficient flexibility to include at the right time as funding is confirmed other jointly commissioned services for example continuation of current transformation work and intensive support services.
An options appraisal was completed by the Integrated Commissioning Group which explored and scored the available options for decommissioning, partnership and single agency contracting arrangements for planning and delivering Community‑based emotional wellbeing support for Children and Young People.
The preferred option identified was A Section 75 between the ICBs and NYC. HNY ICB would act as lead commissioner
It is felt the use of a Section 75 particularly meets the requirement that such arrangements can only be formed if it is likely to lead to an improvement in the way both parties’ functions are exercised. Jointly commissioning this service(s) in scope brings strengthened efficiency and integration opportunities that would not exist through single agency commissioning.
5.0 CONSULTATION UNDERTAKEN AND RESPONSES
5.1 To take forward a new Section 75 Agreement for planning and delivering Community
based emotional wellbeing support for Children and Young People the NHS and Local Authorities Partnership Arrangements Regulations 2000 stipulate that “the partners may not enter into any partnership agreements [under Section 75 (s75) of the NHS Act 2006] unless they have consulted jointly such persons as appear to them to be affected by such arrangements”. This paper requests Executive approval to take a key decision to carry out a formal 60-day consultation on a new Section 75 agreement.
5.2 Local Engagement Work
A workshop took place 6 March 2026 which included key local system partners to explore the school age emotional wellbeing offer. The workshop aimed to identify areas that needed to be changed or strengthened across several areas including:
- Integrated system of mental health and wellbeing support, moving away from a purely medical model, recognising the benefits of early intervention and prevention, the impact of the wider determinants of health, including childhood trauma, and the impact of health inequalities.
- Information sharing opportunities across all stakeholders.
- Clear access points and referral sources across the pathway.
- Communication, marketing and awareness of the offer.
- Workforce development and skill mix, including contributing to a co-ordinated training offer for all staff in contact with children, young people and their families.
- Working with vulnerable families and vulnerable children and young people.
The workshop also identified the following gaps which will need to be considered as potential priorities/areas of work when developing the new agreement and subsequent service (s) in scope.
• Trauma – all aspects single event and enduring impact
• Offer to children not in school or home educated
• Multi-disciplinary working, where one referral, and one triage team with joint consent to share information becomes the norm
• Conditions, usually low-moderate risk, but requiring a longer than 6–8-week intervention (which would usually be provided by specialist CAMHS, but only for the high risk cases) i.e. the missing middle
• Universal emotional literacy model for schools – we can guide schools on what should be included, accepting they will deliver and or commission programmes outside of the Local Authority traded offer
A further partnership workshop will be held 1 May 2026.
5.3 Young People’s Voice - Nothing About Us Without Us is a children and young people’s mental health advisory group. Senior leaders from NYC CYPS and across the Yorkshire and Humber have co-produced with young people, a list of key priorities and multiple campaigns on different subjects that children and young people have told us about. There is a local North Yorkshire Group that fits into the wider regional group. The current top four priorities are
· Promotion & Prevention
· Clinical Conditions
· Waiting Times & Pathways
· Social Determinants &Inequalities
The purpose and aims of the Section 75 will support further progress within the priority areas.
6.0 ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED
6.1 An options appraisal has been completed by the Integrated Commissioning Group which explored and scored the available options for decommissioning the agreement, continuation of the partnership and or single agency contracting arrangements for planning and delivering Community‑based emotional wellbeing support for Children and Young People.
The preferred option identified was A Section 75 between the ICBs and NYC. HNY ICB would act as lead commissioner
It is agreed the use of a Section 75 particularly meets the requirement that such arrangements can only be formed if it is likely to lead to an improvement in the way both parties’ functions are exercised. Jointly commissioning this service(s) in scope brings strengthened efficiency and integration opportunities that would not exist through single agency commissioning.
7.0 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
7.1 The annual cost of the service (s) in scope is currently split as below:
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|
NHS North Yorkshire Place (Humber and NY ICB) (Host) |
NHS Bradford & Craven Place (West Yorkshire ICB) |
Total |
|
ICB Annual £ |
£404,682.54 |
£30,000 |
£434,682.54 |
|
North Yorkshire Council Annual £ |
£322,178.04 |
||
|
Total |
£756,860.58 |
||
8.0 LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
8.1 Section 75 of the National Health Service Act 2006 and the NHS Bodies and Local Authorities Partnership Arrangements Regulations 2000, S.I 617 (“Regulations”) enable NHS bodies to exercise prescribed local authority health-related functions in conjunction with NHS functions, and vice versa. This includes lead commissioner arrangements and joint commissioning between the Council and Integrated Care Boards.
8.2 The power to enter into section 75 agreements is conditions on the following:
i. The arrangements are likely to lead to an improvement in the way in which those functions are exercised; and
ii. The partners have jointly consulted people likely to be affected by such arrangements.
8.3 It is planned that the current Section 75 will be used as the framework for the new agreement. The detailed schedules relating to services in scope and performance framework will be developed within the current Integrated Commissioning Group. It is proposed that any new Section 75 agreement will follow the governance structure described within the existing one.
9.0 EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
9.1 Should the Section 75 agreement for planning and delivering Community based emotional wellbeing support for Children and Young People and services in scope cease, the impact would be:
9.2 An EIA has been completed and attached as Appendix 1.
10.0 CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS
10.1 Joint commissioning of children’s mental health services can contribute to climate‑change mitigation by reducing duplication, shifting care upstream and closer to home. Wider benefits can be realised indirectly through service planning and design, workforce, estates, digital delivery, and prevention, rather than through the clinical interventions themselves.
10.2 A Climate Change Impact Assessment screening has been completed and included here as Appendix 2. The screening exercise concluded its not proportionate to complete a full CCIA.
11.0 CONCLUSIONS
11.1 In advance of Executive papers have been presented and supported by Children and Young People Leadership Team, Management Board and Children and Young People Service Executive Members have been briefed on the intention and proposed timeline.
This Executive Paper requests approval to recommend a new Section 75 and to support a 60-day Public Consultation on the new Section 75 partnership agreement between North Yorkshire Council and NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board for planning and delivering Community based emotional wellbeing support for Children and Young People including in scope a community-based support offer and The Go-To website.
Subject to the outcome of any consultation, Executive are asked to delegate the final sign off the Section 75 to the Executive Director of Children and Young Peoples Services in consultation with Children and Young People Service Executive Members.
12.0 REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS
12.1 The recommendation to progress a new Section 75 agreement reflects the proven benefits of the existing partnership, which has strengthened joint commissioning arrangements, improved integration across the emotional wellbeing system and enabled more efficient use of collective resources. Continuing with a joint Section 75 approach offers commissioners access to levers and flexibilities that are not available through single‑agency commissioning, including pooled or aligned budgets, shared outcomes frameworks, and the ability to design and influence pathways end‑to‑end.
These arrangements have been recognised as an area of good practice in local inspections, including the NY Local Area SEND Inspection, and provide a strong foundation for further enhancing service quality, early intervention, prevention and system‑wide consistency. Seeking approval to consult on the new agreement ensures transparency, meets legal obligations and supports timely development of revised commissioning arrangements ahead of the expiry of current Section 75 partnership arrangements in March 2027.
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13.0 |
RECOMMENDATION(S)
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I. Support the preferred option to establish a new Section 75 agreement between North Yorkshire Council and NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board for the joint planning and delivery of community‑based emotional wellbeing support for children and young people.
II. Approve progressing to a formal 60‑day public consultation on the proposed new Section 75 agreement.
III. Agree that, subject to the outcome of the consultation, Executive delegate final sign‑off the new Section 75 agreement to the Executive Director of Children and Young People Services in consultation with Children and Young People Service Executive Members.
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APPENDICES:
Appendix A –Equality Impact Assessment
Appendix B – CCIA Screening
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS: NA
El Mayhew
Corporate Director – Children & young Peoples Service
County Hall
Northallerton
28.4.26
Report Author – Emma Lonsdale Head of Public Health Children and Families
Presenter of Report – Emma Lonsdale Head of Public Health Children and Families
Note: Members are invited to contact the author in advance of the meeting with any detailed queries or questions.