Agenda item

[Report of the Director of Adults and Health. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Adults and Health]

This report sets out how the Council and NHS can contribute to meeting local need by bringing together a range of services in a single approach at Canning Crescent, recently acquired by the Council.

The Cabinet Member for Adults and Health introduced this report which set out how the Council and NHS can contribute to meeting local need by bringing together a range of services in a single approach at Canning Crescent, recently acquired by the Council.

The Cabinet Member welcomed this proposal coming forward as part of the manifesto commitment to improving health and wellbeing in Haringey. The model of recovery services proposed for Canning Crescent have learnt from services and research around the world so would help provide the highest quality of services for residents.

The Cabinet Member highlighted that the Council was committed to the services being co-produced with residents who have lived experience of mental health conditions, building on the excellent work already happening at the Council’s Clarendon Recovery College. Moving to Canning Crescent and integrating with other services, will allow the creation of more jobs and volunteering opportunities for residents living with mental illness.

The Cabinet Member noted that the services here were a key part of delivering on the vision for early intervention and would help to prevent homelessness, hospitalisation, relationship breakdowns and other harmful life events. The Council’s proposal sustained the best of this award-winning building, in order to provide a therapeutic and attractive environment that would be accessible and inclusive for people with a range of needs and demonstrate our commitment to providing positive and quality spaces.

The Cabinet Member closed by noting this development offered a key contribution to the wider regeneration of Wood Green, bringing its benefits to residents who may be facing multiple challenges and demonstrated the Council’s commitment in their inclusion in the community of Haringey.

RESOLVED

To agree the redevelopment of the Canning Crescent site for the costs set out in paragraph 6.6 of this report as an integrated, mixed use adult mental health recovery centre for the purpose of accommodating the Clarendon Recovery college, a crisis support service (identified as the “safe haven” service in this report) and a crisis house/respite accommodation (identified as the “Recovery House” in this report)

Reasons for decision

Improving mental health in the borough is a Council priority and this scheme forms part of an approach to deliver excellence through integrating services across the Council, the NHS and other partners.

Whilst the current sites for the Recovery College and Recovery House were not purpose designed and would benefit from improvement, bringing the services together on this site offers a further and substantial opportunity to improve the models in both services and the facilities from which they operate. These changes will drive better outcomes and greater preventative benefit for residents and the Council, particularly in relation to prevention of need for adult social care and homelessness services.

There is a need to relocate the Council-run Clarendon Recovery College so its current site can be redeveloped, generating a capital receipt for the Council and contributing to the wider housing delivery which is also a priority for the Council.

The Council has been commissioned by NHS Haringey CCG to provide a new and much needed element of the mental health offer in Haringey, that is a ‘safe haven’ service for people requiring social support for a mental health crisis in the evenings and weekends. This service will be delivered by the Clarendon Recovery College and the Council has already secured £1.02m of capital funding from the Department of Health for development of suitable facilities for this service.

Including the Recovery House in the development offers significant opportunities to improve quality and outcomes from integrating Council services with NHS provision, and will release the scheme’s current building for alternative use or disposal.

Alternative options considered

The project team including Housing Development, Commissioning and their appointed architects, Ingleton Wood have been reviewing a range of options for the Canning Crescent site.

The shortlisted options were: -

1. Refurbish Canning Crescent to deliver the relocated Recovery College, the new Crisis Café, the short stay offer currently delivered at the Recovery House and a supported living scheme, which would have required an additional floor and extensions to the rear of the building.
2. Demolish the building and construct a new building for all the services in option 1.
3. Identify an alternative use for Canning Crescent and acquire another site for refurbishment or a new building for all the services in option 1.
4. Develop the Canning Crescent site for the relocated Recovery College, the new Crisis Café and the short stay offer currently delivered at the Recovery House only, seeking another site for the delivery of supported living.
5. Take a phased approach by opening the recovery elements together in Canning Crescent and building the supported living housing units in an extension in the courtyard.
6. Disposal of the property

Whilst all the options were viable and had merits, option 4 is recommended because:

• It maintains the overall design and architecture of the external building on the street side and reduces the loss of internal features of note within the building
• It facilitates the services provided by the Council and Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust to be operated through an integrated delivery model, reducing revenue costs, capital costs and improving the user experience.
• It speeds up delivery on the Canning Crescent site, so residents can begin to benefit from the services sooner
• It is the lowest capital cost option, at around half the cost of the alternative options (although the investment does not provide a supported living scheme)
• It is believed that an alternative site that can be purpose-built (or developed specifically) for supported living will be able to provide more homes of a better quality than if the scheme is also included into the Canning Crescent site.