In the Pulse this month we are starting to see the culmination of the Government’s attempt to transform the delivery of mental health services and make serious steps towards the goal of ‘parity of esteem’ with physical health services. The Pulse includes the Government’s response to the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. There are also a range of allied guidance and toolkits, in the form of the progress report on preventing suicide in England and from Public Health England a toolkit of ‘Support after a suicide’. There is also specialised guidance from NICE on identifying and managing mental health problems for people with a learning disability.

With the sustained rise in rough sleeping and rates of homelessness over the last five years, Crisis have published a strategy for ending homelessness faster by focusing on interventions which have proven effectiveness. As almost a companion piece, the DCLG have published the Rough sleeping statistics for Autumn 2016 which confirm the continued rise in people sleeping on the street.

In children’s services and criminal justice, a number of publications this month examine the feasibility of identifying early signs of risk that might anticipate escalating complexity. It connects closely with work that we’re undertaking with a number of local areas on this topic: in particular examining the needs of looked after children with a history of multiple placement breakdown and/or placed in out-of-area residential care. If successful, this work will have a range of benefits: from meeting children’s needs earlier and more responsively to financial savings from reducing demand for more specialist care.