Emotional Wellbeing
Support for children and
young people in Wakefield
November 2016
Purpose of the Document:
In Wakefield we are improving how our children and young people access
support for emotional wellbeing and mental health support.
This means a number of changes for schools and education providers in how
services are accessed and what will be available.
This document describes those changes and how schools and education
providers can access the new services available.
Background:
Wakefield has accessed funding as part of a national programme to improve
access to mental health services for children and young people. The funding is
available up to 2020.
Wakefield is investing in early interventions in emotional wellbeing for our
children and young people, and we have commissioned a number of services
to work in partnership with schools and deliver interventions for our children
and young people.
The Services:
Online Counselling
Young people aged 11 – 24 can directly access counselling support online.
The KOOTH online counselling service has been operating for around 12
months and has had a positive impact on the young people who are accessing
the service. We have over 950 young people who have signed up to the online
counselling service.
Young people can log in to www.kooth.com without referral, and access a
range of online support, including access to a counsellor for one-to-one chat,
peer forums, and a range of information and articles to support emotional
wellbeing in young people.
The service is available out-of-hours and evenings.
Face-to-face Counselling
Face to face counselling is also available for children and young people. There
are three counsellors now taking referrals for children and young people,
working on a locality basis across the district.
KOOTH alongside the online provision will start to deliver a number of hours of
face to face counselling to those young people who need additional support.
When a young person is in need of being supported by a counsellor the
request need to be discussed with the localities Primary Practitioner, the
practitioners are detailed in the document.
Examples of reasons for referring to KOOTH face to face counselling are:
 Long standing /significant self-harm
 Emotional wellbeing difficulties having an impact on daily functioning
 Difficulties as a result of significant life events (some examples may
include parental separation, bereavement, moving schools or
geographical areas, parental mental health or substance abuse issues)
 When one-to-one support is identified as a need via the online
counsellor
The counsellors are based in the South East (South Elms all), North East
(Castleford) and the City Centre, but will travel to see children and young
people at the identified school or in the local early help hub.
Schools and education providers can refer directly to this service. Referrals are
via the Kooth website at www.koothf2f.com
Mental Health Practitioner
A team of mental health Primary Practitioners have been recruited to work
closely with schools. The Primary Practitioners will be based in schools and
provide school staff with training and support, and will direct interventions
with children and young people, working alongside teams in the schools.
There will be seven school-based Primary Practitioners, with an office base in a
secondary school in each of the seven early help locality areas. They will work
closely with all secondary and primary schools in the locality areas. Contact
details for the area Primary Practitioners is detailed below The Practitioners
will be arranging timetables with schools to be on-site and develop support
plans with individual schools.
Primary Practitioner
Debbie Bell
Belinda McLelland/Amanda Hocking
Becky Price/Ann Pickard
Mandy Goodall/Gemma Day
Kathryn Thomas/Hannah Silver
Sara Kendrick/Rachael Staves
Mansee Gupte/Jane Causier
Locality
Pontefract and Knottingley
South East
Featherstone and Normanton
North West
Wakefield Rural
Central
Castleford and Airedale
Consent:
As part of the project pilot in the South East an opt-out template has been
developed, for schools and education providers to send out to parents to
request consent for access to the services above.
A template opt-out form is attached for your use in requesting consent from
parents / carers.
For more information:
Contact Michelle Cogan (Children’s Commissioning Manager, Wakefield CCG)
Telephone: 01924 317726
Email: [email protected]
Re: [Insert Name of School / Education Provider] Wellbeing support
[Name of school / education provider] wishes to support and enhance your child’s wellbeing
as they grow and mature into young adults. The complexities of the modern world mean
that young people need to be resilient and should be equipped with a range of tools that
can carry them through difficult times.
Whether this difficulty be related to bereavement, stress, peer issues or even something
that we may consider not to be a worry at all! We aim to provide your child with a range of
support to help them become more resilient and able to cope with these strains on their
emotional, physical and mental wellbeing. The wellbeing package at [Name of school /
education provider] will consist of support that can be accessed by all or bespoke to the
individual needs.
 Pastoral System: Cross Curriculum Team Leaders alongside their Assistant; daily
contact with a P&A Mentor, Curriculum delivery throughout the school day.
 Additional Support: Specialist Support Team, Support for Achievement Team, MAP
Office, Nurture Provision and E-safety Officer
 External Support: We will share information and enable contact with external
agencies to work in the best interests of your child such as: Kooth Counselling
service, Youth Service, School Nurse, CAMHS to name but a few. It is important to
note that students will be able to self-refer to these organisations and that the
College will not seek parental permission for them to do so unless you tick the Opt
out box below.
 We also have student to student support via the Anti-Bullying Ambassadors and Peer
Listeners who will simply to listen to worries and concerns. These students are
trained and will connect students with the right staff and support at College
We are sure that like us you will want your child to be able to overcome the many
challenges that they will face as they mature into adulthood and we hope that our
developing wellbeing package will enable them to do so.
Please tick the box below if you wish to opt out of the External Support. Should you want
further information please refer to the school website or contact [name of contact].
Name of student:
Year Group:
I do not wish my child to have access to external support at [Name of school /
education provider] that is provided by external agencies.