Deb Austin Member
Deb is a mother of two children, a qualified teacher, an experienced governance board member and Chair of a group housing company. She is the former National Lead for CAMHS (NHS) and also led the ‘Together for Children and Young People’ (T4CYP) which was established as a Welsh Government priority with cross-cabinet commitment.
She works across a range of public and third sector organisations. T4CYP launched in February 2015 and was led by the NHS and facilitated as a multi-agency service improvement programme. The priorities for the programme included - exploring ways to reshape, remodel and refocus emotional health, wellbeing and mental health services provided for children and young people (CYP) in Wales, including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
Deb has spent the past 6 and a half years focussed on the coproduction of Early Help and Enhanced support frameworks and resources for Childrens’ emotional wellbeing and mental health (NYTH/NEST). With the learning from the Whole School Approach in mind, Deb led further work on developing a National Early Help and Enhanced Support Framework known as NYTH/NEST. The work focused on the importance of multi-disciplinary and agency work, with the aim of developing a Framework to guide future service development and improvement. This is now a Programme for Government commitment as part of the new Regional Integrated Fund in partnership with Regional Partnership Boards.
She is passionate about making a difference to the lives of children, young people and their families through rights-based approaches that are values led and psychologically informed.