Mental health teams will be rolled out to help children in all schools across Stockton.
Mental health teams will be rolled out to help children in all schools across Stockton.
The teams – piloted in Billingham schools – have been hailed as “making a real difference”. They are part of a raft of measures to transform emotional health and well-being support for children and young people in Stockton.
Councillor Lisa Evans, Stockton Council’s cabinet member for children and young people, said: “We know this is a thread that runs through everything in children’s services and there are significant issues of children’s mental health at the moment. Children’s resilience and their ability to cope with everyday things seems much more difficult at the current time.
“It’s a great piece of work that we’re doing here on transforming services and bringing things together rather than looking at things separately,” she told a health and well-being board meeting on Wednesday (March 29).
“51% of schools now have that support that was piloted in Billingham and that will get to 100%. That needs to happen.
“There’s a tremendous amount of work going on for us to try and support the children and young people out there that are really struggling. We know how important it is and we would never let it go off the radar.”
Cllr Ann McCoy said the pilot scheme had been well received and it helped give teachers and teaching assistants skills and confidence.
Martin Gray, director of children’s services, said they aimed to “address the issues at source”. He told councillors: “Things are actually happening and there’s a lot of activity. Services are being transformed.
“Mental health support teams are absolutely in the centre of this picture. New types of support, on site, directed by schools, that is making a real difference and there is real evidence of change around how young people are experiencing and interacting and receiving support in school.
“We’ve now got 51% of schools in the borough covered and the expectation is we’ll get to 100% roll-out. Schools really do see the value of this. It feels different.”
He said they wanted to turn the programmes, pilots and changes into a “template to roll out across the Tees Valley”, and hoped it would lead to funding and expansion. “We’re starting to see some real impact in terms of waiting times,” he added, pointing to a “phenomenal” average 28-day waiting time for assessment by the child and adolescent mental health service (CAHMS) in Stockton.
Cllr Evans said: “Obviously the sooner we can get young people assessed the better, but I think that’s quite surprising to some people.”
Mr Gray told of sophisticated work with children in care including one-to-one support, therapeutic intervention and training for carers and workers: “It’s early days. We’ll see how that pans out. We want to, if we can, extend that model into aspects of social care as well.”
He said they were also looking at ways to support people with complex needs which can lead to them being placed outside Stockton, and praised the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust for its work with the voluntary sector: “I think that was brave, it’s very unusual. It’s not happening in most places.”
Dominic Garder from the trust said: “It does feel like a very different narrative to the narrative we had perhaps two, three, four years ago. I think the work that’s being done bringing people together and the trust and risks people have to take to do some of that is really paying off for children and young people in this area.”