MENTAL health experts from Worcestershire are lending their expertise to a new partnership helping young people in Birmingham.

Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust has joined forces with Birmingham Children’s Hospital and a range of other organisations including The Children’s Society and healthcare providers Beacon UK and The Priory Group to form Forward Thinking Birmingham.

The new service will provide mental health services to children and young people in the city aged from birth to 25, as well as inpatient services for 18 to 25-year-olds, providing a 24-hour phone number manned by psychiatric experts.

The partnership is the first of its kind in Birmingham – where one in ten children aged five to 16 in the city, or about three in every classroom, suffer from a mental health disorder and is intended to prevent children and young adults from falling through the cracks.

Director of strategy and business development with Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust Sue Harris said it was hoped the partnership would help improve mental health services not only in Birmingham but in Worcestershire as well.

“It is really significant for us to be working alongside an organisation with such an international reputation as Birmingham Children’s Hospital, as well as the other organisations which make up this innovative and exciting partnership,” she said.

“We are committed to a strategy which includes seeking appropriate business development opportunities both locally within the county, but also beyond its boundaries too.

“Our aim with the Forward Thinking partnership is to extend the local expertise we have to support service users in Birmingham whilst ensuring that we maintain the high standards we have set for the people of Worcestershire.”

It is hoped the partnership will address problems currently faced by patients in the city including disjointed and fragmented care provision, complicated service models, long waiting lists and increasing patient demand.

The scheme was named as the preferred bidder for the £124 million five-year contract by Birmingham South Central Clinical Commissioning Group last week.

Chief executive of Birmingham Children’s Hospital Sarah-Jane Marsh said she was “delighted” the partnership had been given the seal of approval.

“It is well known that young people with mental health problems do not get access to the services they need and deserve, which can have a significant impact on them for the rest of their lives,” she said.

“For too long they have had to navigate a complicated mental health system where many slip through the net, unable to access the care they need at a crucial time of their lives.”

Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust already provides healthcare to HMP Oakwood in Staffordshire.

For more information visit www.forwardthinkingbirmingham.org.uk.