Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer

Attention schools in South Warwickshire! Please look out for an email invitation to join the trailblazer and respond promptly to confirm your involvement - the LA must confirm which schools wish to be involved by 21st Jan 2019

You may have read over the holiday that South Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was successful in its bid to become one of 25 Mental Health Trailblazers. The Trailblazers will be trialling the government’s new approach to supporting children and young people with mental health issues, including the launch of 59 Mental Health Support Teams nationally.

This is excellent news for schools in the central and south areas. The CCG will be establishing two Trailblazers, each comprising around 20 schools and 8,000 young people. As well as the launch of the two Mental Health Support Teams, South Warwickshire is one of 12 areas that will pilot a four week waiting time for secondary children (defined by the CCG as a four week wait until ‘something meaningful happens’ for the young person).

This work has arisen from the Government’s Green Paper, ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision’ (first published in Dec 2017, and last updated 25 Jul 2018) which included the following core elements:

1. Designated senior leads for mental health in schools and colleges
2. Mental Health Support Teams working across schools and colleges
3. Piloting a four week waiting time for secondary children and young people’s mental health services

Schools involved in the trailblazer will receive free training for their designated Mental Health Lead.  They will have direct communication with their Mental Health Support Team, who will do the direct work necessary with children and young people in their schools rather than external venues.  The schools will be involved in decision-making for appropriate interventions for their children, and outcomes from the work will contribute to a national data set to drive this model of mental health support in schools forward.

Training for designated leads in schools and Mental Health Support Team practitioners will be happening over the next few months and it is hoped that the work will start by the end of this calendar year.

Criteria being used for the selection of schools include:

• children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) who have Social, Emotional or Mental Health (SEMH) difficulties and/or Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)
• schools involved in Early Help with SEMH as a factor
• schools who have Children Looked After and Young Carers
• schools where School Age Health Needs Assessments (Reception and Year Six) have identified some issues
• schools with pupil premium numbers above the Warwickshire average
• we need a mix of phases, types of school and OFSTED categories

Learning and Performance colleagues will be in touch with those schools who meet the criteria in the next few days. Please look out for the email and respond as soon as possible as we need to confirm which schools wish to be involved by 21^st January.

For further information or any queries please contact Margot Brown:

Email: margotbrown@warwickshire.gov.uk.     

Tel:   01926 742283