Care board blasted as mental health service for Bedford cut without telling the council

The change, which reduced the number of service days in the borough from five to two, was made without prior consultation with the council, prompting concerns over accountability and service accessibility.

A report to Bedford Borough Council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (February 10) said the Crisis Cafés had been underutilised since their launch in 2020 where there were three cafés provided across the county each evening.

Following the change, the service now provides free face-to-face help and support on a drop-in basis at one Bedfordshire location each evening.

How the decision was made was criticised by councillor Dean Crofts (Lib Dem, Kingsbrook).

“It is a statutory duty for you to tell us if you’re going to change your model within the NHS, and we were not informed of this,” he said.

“This is basically a reduction in service because we had a five-day-a-week service for Crisis Café, which has now been reduced down to two.

“And you’ve done that without actually informing us, which is really disappointing.”

A representative for East London Foundation Trust (ELFT) and MIND BLMK said there were “challenges” around the review of the Crisis Cafés, including confidentiality.

Councillor Crofts said: “Even if it was confidential, we would expect you to approach this committee.

“Mental health is very serious, and for us now to defend to our residents that we’ve got Crisis Cafés that have gone to lounges, and we’ve gone from five days a week service down to two days a week.

“How can we defend that as councillors when we knew nothing about it?” he asked.

Councillor Crofts added that he was not saying that the changes were incorrect or wrong.

“What I’m saying is, if you can not inform us of changes for 38 patients, you could not inform us for a service that’s affecting 2,000 patients.

“You have a legal duty to tell this committee that you’re changing the model of service, it doesn’t matter what it is, it doesn’t matter what part of the NHS it is.

“We can have that by briefing note so we’re aware.

“If we let this slide we could have another organisation come to us who’s changed the model of service for over 2,000, 3,000, or 10,000 patients and we know nothing about it. But the numbers are irrelevant. That’s not the issue, the issue is you never told us that you’re doing this and now it’s too late because you’ve done it.”

Loraine Rossati, associate director mental health and learning disabilities at BLMK Integrated Care Board, said councillor Crofts’ comments had been noted.

“We will endeavour to avoid doing that in the future,” she said.

The Mind BLMK Recovery Lounge is available in person from 5pm to 11pm daily as follows:

• Monday: The Lighthouse, Whichellos Wharf, The Elms, Stoke Road, Leighton Buzzard, LU7 2TD
• Tuesday: The Lighthouse, Whichellos Wharf, The Elms, Stoke Road, Leighton Buzzard, LU7 2TD
• Wednesday: Luton Wellbeing Centre, Dumfries Street, Chapel Langley, Luton, LU1 5BP
• Thursday: Bedford Wellbeing Centre, 3A Woburn Road, Bedford, MK40 1EG
• Friday: The Lawns Mental Health Resource Centre, The Baulk, Biggleswade, SG18 0PT
• Saturday: Luton Wellbeing Centre, Dumfries Street, Chapel Langley, Luton, LU1 5BP
• Sunday: Florence Ball House, Kimbolton Road, Bedford, MK40 2PU