Serious concerns have been raised over a mental health service for Shropshire youngsters.

The Bee-U Partnership was launched in May 2017 and provides a health and wellbeing service for young people up to the age of 25.

But a rapid review was launched by Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) after a series of concerns, including the slow mobilisation of the service, delays in access to care, referrals being rejected and a lack of clear support.

Dawn Clarke, director of nursing, quality and patient experience, told a CCG board meeting on July 11 that the findings of the review were “really disappointing”.

She continued: “There are changes being made but they aren’t happening quickly enough.

“These are our most vulnerable population and we need to sort this quickly.”

Ms Clarke also asked how the Department for Health could be brought in to speed the process up.

Keith Timmis, lay member for performance, added: “This has been going on for an eternal amount of time – we need to up the ante.”

The intention of the new service was to offer a comprehensive service for children with emotional health mental illness and neurodevelopmental challenges.

This would include preventative care, support for depression, autism from early recognition, treatment to prevent long-term illness, and supporting children in crisis locally to prevent a hospital admission.

The board meeting was also told of a number of good practices recognised by the review, including telephone triage and steps already in place to improve the service.

Dr Julie Davies, director of performance and delivery, said there would be a meeting with the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which forms part of the service, to discuss the CCGs expectations.

She also said there would be a meeting with NHS England which would see the concerns raised, as well as at other meetings with executives.