• Menu
  • Skip to left header navigation
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • Accessibility
  • Terms and settings
  • Site map
NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group

NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group

Clinicians commissioning healthcare for the people of Northumberland

  • Accessibility
  • Terms and settings
  • Site map
  • Home
  • About us
    • Our Governing Body
    • Governing Body members
    • Vision and values
    • Prescribing
    • Primary Care Commissioning Committee (PCCC)
    • How we work
    • Northern CCG joint committee meetings
    • Counter fraud
    • Safeguarding
    • Who we work with
    • Procurement
    • Our Integrated Care System and Partnerships
    • Primary Care Networks (PCN)
  • Get involved
    • Patient participation groups
    • Your NHS Online Community
    • Diversity and inclusion
    • You said, we did
    • How to get involved
    • Accessible communications
    • A new hospital for Berwick
    • Rothbury Community Hospital
    • Past engagement
    • Meet our engagement and communications team
  • Your health
    • COVID-19 Vaccine Information
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Why is your GP practice working differently?
    • Need urgent care?
    • Find a service
    • Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
    • Children’s mental health support
    • Personal health budgets
    • Health advice
    • What is social prescribing?
    • Stay well this winter
    • NHS 111
    • Patient choice
  • News
  • Events
    • Consultation and engagement events
    • Governing Body Meetings
    • Northern CCG joint committee meetings
    • Primary care commissioning committee meetings
  • Documents
    • Accessible information standard
    • Annual reports
    • Constitution and operational plans
    • Freedom of information disclosure log
    • Governing Body meeting papers
    • Plans and policies
    • Primary Care Commissioning Committee papers
    • Register of interests
    • Transparency reports
  • Opportunities
    • Vacancies
    • Training
  • Contact us
    • Compliments and complaints
    • Media enquiries
    • Freedom of information requests
    • Subject access requests

Mobile Menu

  • Accessibility information
  • Terms and settings
  • Site map
  • Home
  • About us
  • Get involved
  • Your health
  • News
  • Events
  • Documents
  • Contact us
You are here: Home / Your health / Children’s mental health support

Children’s mental health support

Two new schemes are working to improve mental health support for children and young people, after Northumberland CCG was successful in a bid for Government funding.

Mental health support teams have now been launched in schools in two Northumberland towns, and by December 2020, all of the county’s mental health services will be able to see children and young people within four weeks of referral.

Northumberland was one of only 12 CCGs to be awarded funding for the national ‘trailblazer’ pilot schemes focusing on mental health support teams in schools and reducing waiting times.

The mental health support teams, which are being piloted in Blyth and Hexham, aim to support children with lower-level mental health concerns. This will make it easier to access help at an earlier stage, before problems develop to higher level that might need support from secondary care mental health services.

Health providers have worked hard to reduce waiting times in Northumberland, and this targeted approach will help children be seen quicker.

The initiative will also help ensure that children are put on the right pathway for treatment and support more quickly, reducing the number of professionals they have to see. Providers are also working towards creating a single point of access to mental health services for children and young people.

One in four people experience mental health problems, with many of these concerns having their origins in childhood – so by providing extra support to help children to be as resilient as possible, we can reduce some of the problems that can continue and become more acute in adulthood.

Like other areas, Northumberland is seeing increasing numbers of children accessing mental health services, but we are also aware that there are children who don’t access services, who could benefit from early advice and support.

The NHS encourages children and young people to come forward and talk about issues that concern them. More information about looking after your mental health is available from the Every Mind Matters website.

Engagement with children and young people

In July 2019, the CCG held engagement workshops at eight schools across the Blyth and Hexham areas.

These events enabled children and young people to have their say and share their experiences and views on how the teams could support their wellbeing. The feedback received form these events has helped shape the Mental Health Support Teams.

We also asked the children and young people to name our service. They chose ‘Be You’ – a little reminder to always be themselves.

The video below from Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families was shown during the engagement workshops.

The ‘Be you’ mental health support team

‘Be You’ is a new programme focusing on schools which is designed to improve and support the mental health and wellbeing of young people; enabling them to build emotional resilience and identify issues early. Initially this programme will be delivered in the areas of Blyth and Hexham, but if it’s successful we hope to expand it countywide.

Our team is aimed at supporting teachers to enhance mental health provision within schools so we’re here to give advice and act as a bridge to other services. But more than anything we are here to help young people develop healthy habits towards mental health and, where necessary, offer support at an early stage.

  • Senior mental health leads – the primary contact point for the ‘Be You’ team within schools and supporting mental health and wellbeing day to day in their school
  • Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) – work directly with individuals and groups of children and young people at risk of developing mild emotional difficulties.
  • Primary Mental Health Workers (PMHWs)– undertake interventions with individuals for moderate mental health needs and support other professionals through advice and training
  • Educational psychologists and assistant psychologist – working with schools to develop whole schools approaches and delivering enhancements to staff knowledge and skills in this area.
  • Senior mental health lead coordinator – a qualified teacher, the role will support the senior mental health leads, chairing peer support group meetings and making sure learning is shared.
  • Peer educator – works to develop peer mentors so young people can help each other manage their own mental health and provide support when emotional difficulties arise.
How does the ‘Be You’ programme work with existing services?

All other services currently available to schools and young people to support their emotional health and wellbeing continue to exist. This means the Early Help, SEND Support, NHS services and voluntary organisations continue to operate alongside ‘Be You’. We’re something extra – not a replacement.

Children’s resilience and #MentalHealth has long been a cause for concern both nationally and in the North East. Today in #Hexham #Northumberland a new project was launched to improve services to school age children and school staff to improve their well being. Watch the film to find out what the project is about.#BeYou North of Tyne Combined Authority #NorthumberlandCountyCouncil @NHSNlandCCG @NorthumbriaNHS @SchoolsNorthEast #Blyth #HealthwatchNorthumberland

Posted by Hexhamtv on Thursday, 30 January 2020

Get in touch

For further information please contact Rhian Davies rhian.davies@northumbria.nhs.uk or Katinka Bryan katinka.bryan@northumberland.gov.uk

Primary Sidebar

Your health

  • Your health
  • COVID-19 Vaccine Information
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
  • Why is your GP practice working differently?
  • Need urgent care?
  • Find a service
  • Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
  • Children’s mental health support
  • Personal health budgets
  • Health advice
  • What is social prescribing?
  • Stay well this winter
  • NHS 111
  • Patient choice

© 2023 - NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}