The Shared Services Joint Committee met to discuss the Inter Authority Agreement (IAA) performance and to decide on the future of the Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) service. The committee approved the AMHP service becoming a permanent countywide service for adults, with North Northamptonshire Council named as the lead authority. They also approved the transfer of responsibilities for the out of hours AMHP service and adult social care response from Northamptonshire Children's Trust (NCT) to North Northamptonshire Council.

Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) Service Delivery

The committee approved the Approved Mental Health Professional Service becoming a permanent countywide service for adults, with North Northamptonshire Council named as the lead authority, with new arrangements coming into effect on or after 1 September 2025. They also approved the transfer of responsibilities for provision of an Out of Hours Approved Mental Health Professional Service and Out of Hours adults social care response service from Northamptonshire Children's Trust, creating a permanent Countywide Service for adults as an aggregated service with North Northamptonshire Council named as the Lead Authority. The committee also approved the implementation of the Emergency Duty Team (EDT) Enhanced Call Care service proposal.

Samantha Fitzgerald, Assistant Director of Adult Social Care, introduced a report outlining proposals to move the AMHP service to a permanent lead authority model and incorporate the out of hours EDT functions currently provided by Northamptonshire Children's Trust into a single service delivery model. The proposals also included enhancements to call centre functions provided to out of hours teams by West Northamptonshire Council to reduce inappropriate calls being passed to social work teams out of hours, and to collect data to inform future service needs and inform future budget setting.

The report noted that AMHP is a statutory service, for which local authorities are legally responsible under the Mental Health Act. This requires local authorities to provide sufficient, appropriately trained and capable Approved Mental Health Professionals to undertake assessments under the Mental Health Act 1983 (as amended by the Mental Health Act 2007) when required.

The daytime AMHP service is hosted by North Northamptonshire Council, serving adults across Northamptonshire. To ensure that North and West Northamptonshire Councils could continue to deliver the service safely as part of their statutory obligations and without additional risk to people experiencing mental health crises, it was recommended that the service become a permanent Countywide Service with North Northamptonshire named as the Lead Authority.

AMHP and general adult social care responses out of hours are currently provided separately by Northamptonshire Children's Trust. The Children's Trust board has requested that the out of hours service delivery model be changed so that North and West Northamptonshire Councils take over the delivery of out of hours services relating to adults social care, leaving the Children's Trust to focus purely on providing social care services for children across the county.

The committee also:

• Granted delegated authority to the Monitoring Officers for North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council to amend the relevant provisions within the IAA[^1]. [^1]: An Inter Authority Agreement (IAA) is a formal agreement between two or more public authorities to work together to deliver services or projects.
• Approved that North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council work together under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will provide for the agreed new governance procedures, charges and associated joint collaborative working arrangements to ensure service delivery under the new arrangements.
• Noted that North Northamptonshire Council will commence recruitment of additional AMHPs to the service team.
• Agreed all parties to work towards a transfer of services and the creation of a 24/7 AMHP and out of hours social care response service team led by North Northamptonshire Council, supported by an enhanced call care service provided by West Northamptonshire Council from 1 September 2025.
• Agreed that both North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council make provision for an increased service delivery budget through Medium Term financial Planning from 2026/27 onwards.

The reasons for the recommendations were outlined as:

• The Mental Health Act 1983 and 2007 requires local authorities to have arrangements in place to provide AMHP services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Retaining the daytime service delivery under the IAA and amending the IAA to reflect the addition of out of hours services to create a single 24/7 service delivery model, will ensure that there continues to be a formal agreement in place, agreed by North and West Northamptonshire Councils.
• The direct costs to both councils will increase as additional AMHP qualified staff will need to be employed to deliver services, and additional team leader and business support roles will be required.
• Staff at Northamptonshire Children's Trust will be redeployed to North Northamptonshire Council under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) regulations[^2]. [^2]: TUPE protects employees' terms and conditions of employment when a business is transferred from one owner to another.
• Combining AMHP services into a single point of delivery 24/7 model will reduce handover of casework between teams, enable flexibility and harmonisation of services.
• Separating service delivery teams focusing on children's and adults' needs will improve efficiency and surety of service.
• Analysis of points of contact considering source, date and time data has been carried out to ensure the service has resilience.

Alternative options considered were:

• Disaggregation of the service, which was rejected because it would present a high statutory risk to both local authorities, leaving people experiencing mental health crisis at risk.
• Continuing with an out of hours Emergency Duty Team provided by Northamptonshire Children's Trust, which was rejected because the existing NCT EDT establishment does not have enough AMHP-qualified staff to be able to cover all of the shifts required.
• Outsourcing service delivery, which was rejected because it is unlikely that other local authorities have sufficient resources in place to provide such services, and North and West Northamptonshire Councils would still retain statutory responsibility for the services.

Inter Authority Agreement Performance Report 2024/25 Q4

The committee noted the Inter Authority Agreement Performance Report 2024/25 Q4. Tom Barden, Head of Performance, Intelligence and Partnerships, introduced the report, which provided the Joint Committee with the draft quarter four performance report for the services delivered via the Inter-Authority Agreement arrangements between North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council.

Performance was reported on those services provided by North Northamptonshire Council to West Northamptonshire Council:

• Approved Mental Health Providers
• County Traveller Unit
• Digital Infrastructure
• Household Waste Recycling Centres
• Minerals and Waste Planning
• Northamptonshire Archaeological Resource Centre
• The Virtual School
• Adult Learning

along with those services provided by West Northamptonshire Council to North Northamptonshire Council:

• Archives and Heritage, including Historic Environment Records and Portable Antiquities Scheme
• Library Support Services
• Streetlighting
• Visual Impairment
• IT Services

There were 60 indicators reported in quarter four. 87% (52 indicators) were on target. For the indicators that were off target, actions had been taken to address issues and improve performance. The annual outturn also reported 87% (54 indicators) were either hitting or exceeding target.