Cheshire East: Developing Emotionally Healthy Children and Young People
The Cheshire East emotionally healthy children and young people partnership is led by Cheshire East council’s children’s services, and primarily funded from the council’s public health budget.
Many organisations have been actively involved in developing the partnership including the NHS’s local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and children’s and adolescents mental health services (CAMHS), headteachers, and several voluntary organisations.
The partnership’s aim is to support children and young people in becoming more mentally resilient. They also want to reduce the number of children and young people attending accident and emergency services, or being inappropriately referred to CAMHS.
A 2015 consultation with children and young people revealed that there was no agreed approach to mental health issues in schools, and a significant lack of knowledge about what support was available.
Initially the partnership focused on developing ‘emotionally healthy schools’. In 2016, supported by both the council’s public health funds, and CCG money, they ran six pilots in secondary schools. This was then extended in 2017 to include all primary and secondary schools.
In 2019, the Council reviewed the outcomes and results of the initial pilot and recommissioned a revised programme called the ‘emotionally healthy children and young people programme’ for a further 4 years.
Having established an approach successfully in schools, the partnership is now planning to work with younger children in early years settings. They also want to help parents to get better at responding to their children’s emotional needs.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Almost 97% of primary and secondary schools have accessed the partnership’s ‘tools for schools’ programme and are reporting positive outcomes. “Staff are reporting that they are more confident to recognise and respond to emotional harm but also seeing differences in behaviour in the classroom. It is impacting on attainment, and children and young people’s readiness to learn.”
As a council senior lead explains, the partnership has changed the way children’s success is assessed. “We have it as a golden thread through everything that we do so it becomes part of standard language. So whenever we talk about children’s outcomes we are not just talking about their academic outcomes. When we talk about how they are doing at school we are not just talking about their attendance and their attainment. We are making it normal to be asking: “How do the children feel?” How is their behaviour?”
26 schools have been accredited by AcSEED for their work on emotional and mental health education, making Cheshire East the local authority with most accredited schools.
CAMHS is reporting a reduction in referrals, as well as more appropriate referrals. And individual providers who support children and young people with emotional health issues are reporting that people are leaving with improved outcomes.
150 unique young people per month are registering for support online; over 600 have attended drop in sessions; 300 have attended counselling (equating to around 2000 sessions); and 60 are accessing friendship groups.
KEY LEADERSHIP ACTIONS
Building mutual trust by:
- Building on previous positive relationships
- Employing a facilitative style
- Valuing all contributions
- Encouraging healthy debate
Agreeing shared strategies by:
- Listening to children and young people’s concerns
- Learning from elsewhere
- Identifying critical common concerns
- Resolving significant differences
- Ensuring senior management support
- Maintaining political commitment
- Experimenting, learning and adapting and growing approaches
Delivering results by:
- Being interested, passionate and caring
- Being flexible
- Promoting the partnership’s successes
CHALLENGES
- For the voluntary organisations involved, reconciling being both a provider and a partner
- Agreeing clear outcomes and milestones in the early stages of developing the partnership, when partners had so many different ideas and opinions
- Initially demand for CAMHS’s services increased as a result of the programme
- Fully demonstrating the value of the programme when the greatest impact is likely to be long term
ADVICE FOR OTHERS
As one of the leaders advised:
“It takes commitment, trust and time. In any transformation work you do with children and young people it’s very difficult to get immediate outcomes.”
