Mental health social work functions

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am writing to request the following recorded information held by your authority, relating to mental health social work functions for adults as of the financial year 2024/25:

1. Arrangements for Discharge of Mental Health Social Work Functions

Please describe your current arrangements for the discharge of mental health social work functions. For each arrangement, indicate which of the following applies (please select all that are relevant and specify for each service area if arrangements differ):

(a) Provided in a standalone team by the council
(b) Provided through generic social work teams by the council
(c) Provided in integrated teams with the NHS but directly line managed by the council
(d) Provided in integrated teams with the NHS governed by a section 75 (s.75) agreement
(e) Other arrangement (please specify in detail)

If arrangements vary across different service areas or age groups (e.g., adults, older people), please provide details for each.

2. Workforce: Established and Actual WTE

Please provide, as of 31 March 2025:
The established (budgeted) whole-time equivalent (WTE) number of mental health social worker posts
The actual WTE number of mental health social workers in post.
If possible, please break down by service area (e.g., adults, older people) and team type, as described in section 1.

3. Expenditure: Total Spend on Mental Health Social Work
For the financial year 2024/25, please state:
The total actual spend on mental health social work (including staffing, overheads, and other relevant costs)
If possible, please provide a breakdown by service area and/or team type

1. For working age adults, any arrangements of discharge planning in relation to care and support needs is provided by an ‘integrated team within the NHS, governed by a section 75 agreement’.

The Section 75 Team based within Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (LPFT) are commissioned to provide this function and work closely with Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) and Lincolnshire ICB (LICB) colleagues to support the discharge process and assess the individual to ensure the right level of support is provided in the community. The S117 Working Age Quality Assurance Group has members working closely together from LCC, LPFT and LICB at decisions maker level to ensure all discharges and planning is quality assured and that aftercare is compliant with the Mental Health Act.

There is focus on transitional planning with a person focused care and support plan that has funding arrangements in place. The group meet weekly to discuss new cases, escalation/ de-escalation in need, reviews and to quality assure existing provisions. The ‘Mental Health Act Section 117 Aftercare for Adults - Joint Policy for NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board Lincolnshire County Council Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’ last updated in Sep 2022 addresses; the duties under the Mental Health Act, the responsibilities of the agencies involved, eligibility and entitlement, processes (assessing and recording/ ending and reinstating aftercare and transforming care, commissioning, advocacy and escalation routes.

Adults over the age of 65 have arrangements for discharge planning which sit within a standalone team in LCC. There is also a S117 assurance group. Should you require any further information regarding this specific cohort, please contact customerinformationservice@lincolnshire.gov.uk to make a freedom of information request.

2. As per the above response to question 1. all mental health social worker post are therefore part of the NHS (LPFT), and this information will need to be requested from them directly. For clients over 65, the social work function is integrated into the Adult Care and Community Wellbeing teams and is therefore not specific to just clients with a Mental Health support need. Should you require any further information regarding this specific cohort, please contact customerinformationservice@lincolnshire.gov.uk to make a freedom of information request.

3. In response to your first statement LCC does not hold this information as it will be held by LPFT (NHS) https://www.lpft.nhs.uk/about-us/accessing-our-information/freedom-information

The total spend on the under 65 care costs totals £17.686 Million. For the over 65 cohort this is integrated as stated above and we are unable to identify specific spend for the Mental Cohort