Another important policy area change has been shelved by the Council.

Its forward programme of decisions included an item on the joint procurement of some mental health services in partnership with the NHS.

The Council said that the report would present a proposal to jointly commission “some of our mental health provision with the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), and include these services currently provided by CYC within the mental health tender that the CCG will be releasing in November 2014. This will include having a pooled budget arrangement and transferring affected staff to the organisation of the successful tender bidder”.

After being postponed on two occasions, the proposal has now been dropped without explanation.

NB. The Liberal Democrats announced last month new polices aimed at increasing the priority given to addressing mental health needs. They included guarantees on waiting times.