Growing UpWhy Mental Health Matters in Schools

Three children and young people in every classroom have a mental health problem.– Office for National Statistics, Mental health of

children and young people in Great Britain, 2004

Half of those with lifetime mental health problems first experience symptoms by the age of 14.

– Department for Health, No health without mental health, 2011

Among teenagers, rates of depression and anxiety have doubled in the past 30 years.– Nuffield Foundation, Social trends

and mental health, 2013

Supporting students to access learning

During the time that Place2Be has provided a service here at Bridge, they have become an integral part of the Academy and the overall provision we offer to the students.

The service they provide is primarily for the students, but also encompasses counselling, support and thinking time for teachers and parents.

Inclusion is a priority for us here at Bridge and Place2Be has been an invaluable part of the services we offer to students and parents. Being on site and part of the Bridge team, Place2Be has been available for formal and informal meetings and discussions and thinking around appropriate provision for certain students who are struggling with issues either at home or in school.

This provision could be ongoing weekly one-to-one counselling or access to the daily drop in service.

Place2Be works closely with our Student Support Managers, and students access these services very readily. This has meant that some students, who might not otherwise have coped, have managed to continue to access their learning. This has also meant that many students have gone on to achieve good results supported by their Place2Be intervention.

Staff at Bridge recognise the importance and effectiveness of Place2Be for our students. They are very pleased to have an accessible service where they can quickly and easily refer students experiencing difficulties, for appropriate and professional help.

Engaging with the on-site counselling and support service has often helped students through some very difficult times. The time offered by Place2Be, to reflect on and assess their behaviour and its impacts, often seems to enable students to deal more constructively with difficult, challenging behaviours and feelings.

Place2Be has been a very successful part of the provision we want to offer here – a feeling of difficulties being acknowledged and appropriate support offered to every student at Bridge.

Stephen Foster,Principal, The Bridge Academy

Making a lifetime of difference to children in schools

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How Place2Be works with schools

68%of students whose difficulties interfered with their classroom learning and 70% of those whose difficulties were a burden on the teacher or class showed an improvement.

– Place2Be Key Stage 3 Outcomes Report, 2013

Place2Be works with over 210 schools across England, Scotland and Wales and over 80,000 children and young people access our services.

Our missionTo enhance the wellbeing and prospects of children and their families by providing access to therapeutic and emotional support in schools, using a proven model backed up by research and training.

Our visionA world where children have the opportunity to grow up with prospects rather than problems.

Our valuesPerseveranceIntegrityCompassionCreativity

Find out more at: www.place2be.org.uk/where-we-work

Place2Be works in primary and secondary schools providing vital support as children make this potentially challenging transition. One-to-one sessionsOnce it is determined that a child would benefit from counselling, a counsellor meets with the child for weekly one-to-one sessions. Individual sessions can last from a school term to a whole academic year. Place2Be’s trained counsellors work in the way that is most appropriate for each young person. Parenting supportPlace2Be helps parents, grandparents and carers in schools to become better able to develop positive and supportive relationships with their children and the school. Place2Be works one-to-one with parents and carers in schools and runs parenting groups in schools and children’s centres.

SafeguardingPlace2Be has a clear process for responding to child protection concerns that arise in the course of the therapeutic work with children. Volunteer Counsellors have supervision on a daily basis, enabling them to raise concerns and any child protection issues are overseen at a senior level within Place2Be. Place2TalkOpen to all pupils, this is a drop-in service where children can refer themselves, come alone or with their friends to speak to a counsellor during break times. Place2ThinkPlace2Be provides teachers and school staff with a consultation service and training sessions addressing themes relating to children’s emotional wellbeing in schools, such as safeguarding, attachment, understanding risks and resilience, working effectively with parents, resolving conflict and supporting transitions.

Riley has made amazing progress since attending Place2Be in Year 7. Then his attitude and behaviour were really challenging. Now he is a lovely young man who can surprise you with acts of kindness.’

Head of Year 10

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Place2Be School-Based ServicesIntegrated on-site support for the whole school community

Supporting children and young people• Place2Talk• Referral and assessment• One-to-one counselling• Therapeutic group work

Supporting parents and carers• Parent Partnership work• Signposting and multi-agency working• Parent counselling

Quality Assurance Measures• Clinical supervision• Training for staff and volunteers• Evaluation to assess impact and regular

reporting on outcomes• Multi-agency work for onward referrals

Focus areas• Safeguarding• SEN and Disability

When transition doesn’t go well, young people can feel isolated, alone and present as rejected and rejecting.’

John Ivens,Educational Psychologist and Head Teacher at Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital School

Teenagers suffer from poor press. Exasperated, stressed-out parents complain about their lack of influence, media articles predict society’s fate at the hands of adolescents at the extreme end of violent or offending behaviour.

At Place2Be, we recognise that teenagers need support in negotiating, processing and overcoming the stress and anxiety, the dilemmas and traumas that adolescence can bring. We also believe

that providing therapy to young people during the first crucial years at secondary school, whilst the developing brain is receptive to new ways of learning, gives us an amazing opportunity to provide non-stigmatising, easily accessible emotional and mental health support at a time when the challenges are plentiful and guidance is crucial.

Sarah Kendrick,Head of Services, South

Growing up

Supporting teachers• Place2Think• Training for teachers and

school staff

Find out more at:www.place2be.org.uk/stories

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Lone parent household 43%Living with both biological parents 27%Living with one biological and one step-parent 16%Living with other relatives, adoptive or foster parents 13%Looked after by the local authority 1%

Social profile of young people seen by Place2Be

Turning lives around

11 year old Ben was deemed ‘unteachable’ by his teachers. His attention-seeking behaviour frequently ended by being sent out of lessons to aimlessly wander the corridors. He was unpopular with his peers and often involved in violent arguments. After an incident of arson resulting in a five day exclusion, Ben was referred to Place2Be for a year of counselling.

When Ben first met his counsellor he presented as a funny, charming young boy to whom family seemed exceptionally important. Yet, she soon learned of his unstable upbringing and being shifted between family members’ homes across the UK as they felt they couldn’t cope with his behaviour. The loss of his grandfather led to even more disruptive behaviour and Ben was asked to leave his school. Ben’s father felt very guilty for his son’s unsettled start in life but despaired at his inability to form a positive relationship with Ben. This resulted in an authoritarian and punitive parenting style.

It took many weeks to build a trusting relationship with Ben and he frequently tested his counsellor’s loyalty with his extremely provocative behaviour. However, as their relationship developed,

Ben gradually began to show his anxiety, expressing the difficulties of his life at home through drama and play. As the counsellor gained a deeper understanding of the root of Ben’s behaviours, she was able to share this with his teachers and together develop strategies to ensure both his and their needs were being met. This allowed Ben to focus in lessons, showing significant improvement in his academic achievement. He gained confidence at school, making friends, joining a mentoring scheme and even quitting smoking, thanks to his new-found belief in himself. His counsellor said: “working therapeutically with Ben was a slow, painstaking process but also extremely rewarding” and she was “so proud” of the dramatic change in his self-esteem.

Nearly 80,000 children and young people suffer from severe depression.– Office for National Statistics, Mental health of

children and young people in Great Britain, 2004

Supporting children and young people

Find out more at:www.place2be.org.uk/stories

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Nearly half of young people seen by Place2Be had difficulties for more than a year (48%). Around 6 out of 10 young people had difficulties that considerably affected their classroom learning (61%) according to teachers.

LEAs are seeking to address the difference in performance and lack of appropriate progression at Key Stage 3. Many are promoting school-based initiatives, including better pastoral planning and transition arrangements between Key Stages 2 and 3.’

– National Assembly for Wales, Narrowing the gap in the performance of schools, 2002

In raising the attainment of learners in literacy who are most at risk of not gaining the skills they need for successful lives... Successful schools showed that the acquisition of literacy skills often needs to be underpinned by high-quality pastoral care and supported by effective partnerships with parents, carers and agencies beyond the school.’

– Ofsted, Removing barriers to literacy, 2011

Positive impact on learning

For young people who started counselling in the abnormal clinical range

79%improved according to teachers;

82%according to parents; and

92%according to young people themselves.

– Place2Be, Key Stage 3 Outcomes Report, 2013

Find out more at:www.place2be.org.uk/impact

As children get older they don’t always share information quite as readily as they did when they were younger… Many children and young people still lack in self-confidence, resilience and coping skills.’

– Education Scotland, Health and Wellbeing, The responsibility

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Anna, Year 7, refuses to attend school for reasons unknown to family and school. Mornings are fraught with tears and by the time she is forced to school by her mum, she is physically and emotionally exhausted. Some days the fight is too much and she doesn’t make it into school at all.

Anna was referred for one-to-one counselling at Place2Be and immediate steps were taken to support her and her mother. This began with the School Project Manager inviting Anna into her office as a safe space to calm down when she arrived at school. Here, she expressed extreme anxiety about difficulties with friendships and separation from her mother. Talking to her mother revealed that she too suffered from low self-esteem and severe anxiety. She was referred to a Parent Support Partner, where she received practical and emotional support to empower her to help and reassure her daughter.

Building children’s confidence

100% of the schools’ senior leadership teams fed back that the School Project Managers are now well known in their schools, children are positive about Place2Talk and School Project Managers are communicating well with school management.’

Head and Deputy Head Teachers,Glasgow schools cluster

Anna began regular one-to-one sessions as well as attending Place2Talk up to five times a day to offload her intense worries and paranoia about friends and school work. The counsellor began by listening and accepting her anxieties without criticism, building a strong therapeutic relationship and allowing her to gain confidence. Slowly, the counsellor began to gently challenge these thoughts and, gradually Anna began to see things in a different way and to believe in herself.

After a year of support from her Place2Be counsellor, Anna now happily attends school each day. With her new-found confidence, she stopped being brought in by her mum and now comes independently, laughing with her and with her new group of friends. Now and again she still has a ‘wobble’, but her counselling helped her learn that she is only human, that we all make mistakes, and when we do the world will not end.

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A Place for Parents A Place for Parents provides free and confidential individual counselling to parents and carers of children and young people who are supported by Place2Be. This is also available to other parents identified by school staff as being in distress or experiencing parenting difficulties. The service is delivered by a Parent Counsellor, an experienced clinician, who travels between schools within a cluster and works with parents on-site. Initially parents are offered eight sessions of counselling after which their progress is reviewed. If further support is needed, counselling can continue for up to a year.

The work combines a focus on personal issues and parenting skills. Parents have the opportunity to explore:

• Their relationship with their children and parenting

• Their current personal circumstances and relationships

• How they were parented and how this has impacted upon them as parents

• Their parenting behaviour and style and any changes they might like to address A Year 8 student, Lauren was due to start school in two weeks.

She had been involved in a traumatic incident the previous night at her home involving armed police and was very shaken and tearful. She was terrified about her imminent start at school and her mum and refuge key worker had brought her in for a meeting. They knew of Place2Be from the girl’s previous school and we were just setting up the Place2Be service at the Academy at that time. I was able to meet with the family and support the student’s transition to the Academy through regular Place2Talk sessions which was agreed by her mother, and she has now settled comfortably into school life.

School Project Manager

Right Place Right Time…

65%Two-thirds of parents who started with a score that showed they were high risk had achieved clinical recovery by the end of counselling.

– Place2Be, A Place for Parents, Outcomes Report 2014

This time is important to me … I want to be a good role model for my kids … this helps me work out what I want to do with my life.’– Parent who saw Place2Be Parent Counsellor

Supporting Parents and Carers

92%Between baseline and post-intervention, 9 out of 10 of all parents had improved Total Global distress scores.

– Place2Be, A Place for Parents, Outcomes Report 2014

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Caught in the middle

Schools need to teach students not only academic knowledge and cognitive skills, but also the knowledge and skills they will need to promote their own mental and physical health, and successfully navigate the world of work.’

Professor Chris Bonell, British Medical Journal, 2014

Thirteen year-old Isaac was a well-liked boy, popular with students and teachers alike and always had a big smile on his face. He was doing reasonably well academically, although his levels hadn’t improved in line with teachers’ expectations. When Isaac came to Place2Be the words tumbled out. He explained about his mum and dad arguing constantly and how he mustn’t let anyone find out, or it might make the situation worse. He was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate in class and he was not sleeping well. During weekly sessions Isaac revealed he felt caught in the middle of his parents’ relationship and conflicted by their arguments. He used toy animals to illustrate this: a roaring lion represented the part of Isaac that wanted to scream at his parents to stop shouting, while the baby mouse represented his wish to curl up in his parents’ bed and for everything to be ok. After several sessions the School Project Manager let Isaac’s mum know how it was going. Mum explained how she was feeling, following the discovery of Dad’s affair, and how she was considering separation. Mum said Isaac knew everything and he was “fine”. She was impressed by how grown-up he was being, taking care of her and his younger sister. The School Project Manager gently suggested that perhaps Isaac might not be so unaffected. Together they thought about what possible impacts it was having on Isaac and what they could do to better support him. Isaac continues to attend Place2Be. He is beginning to reflect on his own feelings and the choices he has about how he behaves and the amount of responsibility he takes for his parents’ decisions and their behaviour. His teachers report they are noticing changes – Isaac is concentrating and engaging better with his lessons and the standard of his academic work is rising once again.

Mental health difficulties in childhood cast a long shadow. Behavioural problems in particular have a strong tendency to persist into later life, with a wide range of damaging and costly consequences, both for the individuals concerned and for wider society. The answer lies in intervening early, before problems become entrenched. We know from a strong body of evidence that this works.’

Michael Parsonage,Chief Economist, Centre for Mental Health, 2014

Supporting children and young people

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Anxiety presents in many different ways. A child might show separation anxiety, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is also part of the anxiety group of disorders, or a child might show general anxiety disorders – anxiety is a catch-all for a number of different manifestations of their problem.

When anxiety presents itself in older children and adolescents, you do see gender differences. Girls are more likely to manifest anxiety towards themselves such as through self-harm or eating disorders – restrictive eating. With boys, you tend to see more conduct disorder or oppositional defiance disorder – boys showing their anxiety outwardly through aggression and violence.

In treating anxiety difficulties in young people, mental health clinicians always steer away from medication – it is our last resort.

Mental health is to do with a variety of factors. As well as the individual, it includes the environment they live in, their family, how they think, how they learn, how they manage at school. The aim is to support young people to understand what sits behind their anxiety and what triggers it and to grow in their emotional resilience.

Professor Tanya Byron,Place2Be Ambassador

11–16 year olds with an emotional disorder are more likely to smoke, drink and use drugs.– Department for Health, No health without mental

health, 2011

A snapshot

Anxiety in young people

A snapshot of 10 young people from a school in the North East who had all accessed Place2Be one-to-one support in Year 7 revealed that nine had gone to college or 6th form, and one boy who achieved six GCSE A-C including Maths and English and a Btec in Sport went on to become the editor of the school newspaper.

Anxiety disorders affect one in eight childrenNational Institute of Mental Health

Find out more at:www.place2be.org.uk/anxiety

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Cyber bullying and self-harmMuch has been written about the impact of too much stress and the resultant increase in anxiety amongst children and young people. This is especially evident when support is unavailable and children’s own skills are not robust enough to cope. Sometimes, even when there is support, children and young people do not feel able to reach out for help.

This seems particularly true in cases where children and young people are experiencing bullying of any sort, and particularly cyber bullying. Indeed there are now instances where young people are using social media to self-harm by cyber bullying themselves. Within our schools we have noticed increased requests from senior teaching and management staff for help with how to support children and young people who are struggling to cope with social media, particularly cyber bullying.

We have also noticed an increase in reports of self-harm. Difficult as it may be to conceptualise hurting yourself as a coping strategy, children and young people may turn to self-harm as a way of distracting themselves, to soothe themselves from the internal emotional and cognitive pain of the stress they are experiencing. This can often be the case with an experience such as cyber bullying – so potentially insidious, silent and constant. Teachers often feel overwhelmed and under-equipped to respond to the challenges young people face on social media, and when students turn to self-harm as a way of coping, this can, in turn, lead to heightened anxiety on the part of teaching staff. As one Head Teacher commented following his referral

of students who were self-harming to our Place2Be counsellors, ‘I didn’t sign up to be a teacher to deal with this’.

We are also aware that websites that provide information to children and young people about self-harm and suicide are prevalent and freely available. There are concerns that this information, as well as the increase in reported cases, can lead to children and to children and young people turning to self-harm as a coping strategy.

Indeed we have seen an increase in our Safeguarding reporting system of suicide ideation (including an increase in primary school-aged children); overdosing, cutting, and deliberately bruising by punching and head banging. One can only imagine the level of distress a child or young person is experiencing that they turn to harming themselves to cope. Understanding why children and young people find it difficult to seek help is key to ensuring we have the right support in place. Providing them with support to consider other coping strategies to deal with stress, is fundamental to our work. Understanding the stressors that children are experiencing today, particularly those related to the internet, is a national challenge and key to the mental health of our children and young people and their future wellbeing as adults.

Dr Fiona Pienaar, Director of Clinical Services

Supporting children and young people

Find out more at:www.place2be.org.uk/self-harm

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All young people at school are on Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. Relationships play out online as well as in school and can continue when not in the same physical space. Twitter is most used, they don’t necessarily name other children but through the use of hashtags make it obvious who the comment is aimed at. But what they don’t seem to think about is that online there is a record. Young people feel less inhibited talking to a Place2Be counsellor than they would a teacher about problems online.’

School Project Manager

A Year 8 girl sat in the Place2Be office, unable to speak as she cried uncontrollably. Her attendance was suffering, she refused to come to school, her mum had caught her making herself sick and she constantly complained of headaches.

The girl and her group of friends had been victims of an internet scam, devised by two of their most trusted friends. For months, they manipulated the lives and emotions of these girls through virtual male characters they had created.

The girls got to know the ‘boys’ through the internet, made to seem so realistic that one parent said ‘her face used to light up when “Charlie” got in touch, she missed going away with the family as she was sure that they were going to meet.

However, as they learnt more about the boys, it emerged that they were experiencing various levels of suffering and trauma in their lives. A baby sister and a parent had died, one boy ran away from home and another was run over. When one girl decided to end things with “Leon” he threatened to kill himself. The stories were given added authenticity with real photographs, even of a baby in intensive care.

One girl said “life was hell for a while. I thought: what’s the point?”

This disturbing campaign of cyber bullying affected the girls on numerous levels. They were all, to some degree, experiencing feelings of loss, anger, and a great deal of hurt. They felt betrayed and were finding it difficult to understand or even believe the truth.

Place2Be worked with the victims, helping them come to terms with what happened in a safe space, supporting each other as a group. The two perpetrators joined the final session at the girls’ request. They apologised and had written letters to each of the girls. It was important to hear them admit that the boys were fake. The girls wanted the opportunity to tell their ‘friends’ how it had affected them. The session was extremely powerful and filled with tears.

Following a period of exclusion, the two perpetrators were offered counselling sessions themselves.

Manipulated online

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Place2Be training and CPD

Place2Be TrainingPlace2Be is a leading provider of training and development for professionals who work with children, young people and their families. We work with over 3,000 professionals each year, including school staff; virtual heads; school nurses; social workers; housing association teams; police; the London Fire Brigade; and other charities, such as the Prince’s Trust and the Future Leaders Trust.

Our training is designed to enhance the understanding of emotional wellbeing within the context of the professional’s work with children and young people – examining in particular the importance and impact of emotional wellbeing on a child or young person’s ability to access and engage with activity, environment and society – and reach their full potential.

Our training introduces theory and offers practical techniques and relevant solution-focused strategies to assist and complement professional development, enhancing the effectiveness of the service delivered. We offer a selection of one-day professional development workshops for groups of up to 20 staff at an organisation. We are also able to create bespoke programmes from a menu of workshops that can be blended to meet a particular organisational need.

Mentoring ProgrammePlace2Be’s Mentoring Programme supports both primary and secondary students. The programme offers a development and mentoring opportunity for older secondary students, to enable them to effectively mentor and support primary pupils.

The Mentoring Programme develops the skills and understanding of secondary students and gives them an opportunity to support younger pupils in their development and build self-esteem. The programme is accredited and has been designed to map directly against the International Baccalaureate. For younger mentees, the programme offers them an older person to talk to and crucially, for those more vulnerable children, it gives individual one on one time.

Kate Vintiner,Place2Be Director of Development

The highly professional experiential training that Place2Be has provided has given our pupils a strong understanding of the role that mentors play, the boundaries needed to provide a safe experience for all involved, and an opportunity to practise the skills learned in the training prior to the start of the mentoring relationship.’

Andrew Hunter,Headmaster, Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh

The participants from our school found the programme incredibly useful and rewarding, and it has undoubtedly had an impact on their practice. They cannot speak more highly of the training and welcomed the opportunities to think about how they need to care for themselves in order to be able to care for others.’

Assistant Head Teacher, Ealing Cluster

Supporting teachers and school staff

Find out more at: www.place2be.org.uk/training

Place2Be delivers Counselling Skills for Working with Children aimed at anyone interested in working with children accredited by the Counselling & Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body. Those working to become a qualified child counsellor can undertake our Postgraduate Diploma and Masters in Counselling Children in Schools, which is accredited by British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy and validated by the University of East London. All our training courses draw on Place2Be’s experience of enabling children and young people to flourish.

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I wanted to become a teacher to support the development of young people. However, due to the extreme pressure to focus on academic achievement, I felt unable to fully support my students, many of whom were experiencing difficulties distracting them from their studies. Place2Be is able to solely focus on addressing the emotional and behavioural difficulties, which teachers sadly have little time to do, and remove barriers to their engagement and progress in school. This service would have been invaluable in my case.’

Beth Woolf, Ex-Newly Qualified Teacher

Having a Place2Be School Project Manager on site means that there is an additional experienced and well-trained professional with whom senior leaders can collaborate when addressing complex child protection and safeguarding matters. Our partnership with the Place2Be adds further robustness and expertise to our assessment of risk because we know that each matter that arises will be addressed not only through our internal and local authority procedures, but also through the efficient and effective procedures of a national organisation which has long-standing experience of working with vulnerable children and families.’

Guy Rimmer, Deputy Head (Inclusion), ARK King Solomon Academy, London

Place2Be is an integral part of our student support services. Many students simply need a place where they can talk and get good advice to help them with problems in life, at home or at school, and find it difficult or impossible to talk to parents and teachers about these things. Place2Be offers this service. The School Project Manager is essential to my sanity.’

Head of Year 7, ARK Globe Academy, London

SUPPORTING TEACHERS

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Helping children find the right path

Two thirds of boys with a father in prison will end up with a criminal record– Barnardo’s May 2014

The proportion of young people aged 15-16 with a conduct disorder more than doubled between 1974 and 1999.– Association for Young People’s Health, Key Data

on Adolescence, 2013

At least 200,000 youngsters have a parent in jail, yet there is no official record of who these children are or where they live. Yet the experience of having a parent in prison can be shocking for a child. It is compounded by the stigma surrounding prison, which means that children often feel ashamed and refuse to tell anyone about it. Home can be a stressful and chaotic place as the parent left behind struggles to cope.’

Rosemary Bennett, The Times

I often feel worried for young people today because the world seems a much scarier place than I remember when I was at school. For me, growing up through my teenage years and the thought of leaving school and going out into the world as a young adult was a time of excitement and adventure. Today there is so much more pressure and less forgiveness towards young people. Any mistakes we made when I was growing up were soon forgotten, yet today such mistakes will be played out through social media and potentially stay with people. I believe young people instinctively know what is right and what is wrong and more often than not the bravest thing a young person can do is remembering the difference between right and wrong. This is especially so when others try and get you to do stupid or dangerous things. Success in life is not about how many cars or houses or how much money someone has. It’s about values, knowing that you should always try and do what is right. Sadly we all occasionally fail to remember the way we should behave, but as long as you realise those mistakes and are even more determined to do the right thing next time, friends and loved ones will see you as a great success in life.’

Jon Boucher, Deputy Chief Constable for Bedfordshire

Supporting children and young people

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Children accessing one-to-one counselling make good academic progress overall, with children starting the furthest behind at the beginning of the school year making excellent progress over the course of the year

– Place2Be, Key Stage 3 Outcomes Report, 2012

AlanAlan was referred to Place2Be in Year 7, age 11, and continued to attend for the next school year. Alan was displaying aggressive and sometimes violent behaviour towards his peers at break time and had become very hard to manage in the classroom.

After working for a term with a female counsellor, Alan was referred to a male counsellor for another three terms. It was felt it would be highly beneficial for Alan to receive support and guidance from a male adult who could provide a positive role model. Alan’s relationship with his father was a key issue in the sessions. His dad was in prison but shortly due for release. Alan was ambivalent about his father, but also clearly took his lead from him on how to behave. They explored Alan’s issues understanding manhood without being aggressive. He disliked swearing and violence but he wanted

to be strong and would end up in fights unintentionally. His counsellor helped him discover and model how to be male in a positive way. Alan struggled to find stability and continuity at first, often missing sessions and would often feel “lost” or “forgotten”.

Alan made good use of his sessions, very quickly using the materials well and finding a variety of ways to express himself. His counsellor was impressed with his capacity to process his emotions. He would often arrive angry from the playground, feel this powerfully for a few moments, then shake himself, recover and move on.

Alan’s sessions at Place2Be came to an end in the summer, by which time he was much more in control of his emotions and teachers reported that he was getting in fewer fights and seemed calmer.

A positive male role model

95%of imprisoned young offenders have a mental health disorder. Many of them are struggling with more than one disorder

– Office for National Statistics, Psychiatric morbidity among young offenders in England and Wales, 1997

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Special Educational Needs and DisabilitiesThe new code of practice

Of all the young people seen by Place2Be, a third (34%) had special education needs at school action plus or had a full statement. On average, 14% of young people at Place2Be schools have SEN.

– Place2Be, Key Stage 3, Outcomes Report, 2013

Our most recent partnership with the Department for Education (DfE) means Place2Be has the vital funding necessary to ensure that our services are wholly responsive to the needs of children and young people with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities).

To best achieve this we now have two Principal Educational Psychologists who have a key role in training our School Project Managers and counsellors on the implications of SEND and helping them to consider how they can best enable children with a range of SEND needs to access and fully benefit from Place2Be’s services.

The revised SEND Code of Practice replaces the category of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties with a new category of social, emotional and mental health needs. We welcome this shift of emphasis and Place2Be is ideally placed to support schools in rethinking challenging behaviour in this way.

For our partner schools, we offer Educational Psychology-led consultation and standalone sessions with a SEND focus. Educational Psychology expertise can also be accessed by any school looking to commission bespoke training on all aspects of child and adolescent psychology, social emotional and mental health needs and SEND.

Place2Be Educational Psychologists are available to all Place2Be clinicians across the UK. Our School Project Managers are receiving dedicated training and all have access to individual consultation when a child referred for one-to-one work has SEND.

With our Educational Psychology expertise, Place2Be is able to work with the effects of a child’s social, emotional and mental health needs, to provide the best possible and personalised support for a child with SEND.

Julia Clements and Paula Nagel,Place2Be Principal Educational Psychologists

Focus area

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EllieEllie was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome in Year 7. She was getting very anxious about homework as she was terrified of getting a detention; anything that deviates from routine she finds difficult. She can become tearful, panicky, unable to breathe and hysterical. Now, when Ellie begins to feel the panic or tears, or if her teacher becomes aware of its onset, she can come out of the lesson and talk to Place2Be until she feels more in control.

Place2Be staff and volunteers are always out in the playground at break and lunchtime and she used to come and see them a lot. Now, Ellie attends a number of lunch time clubs and a quiet place to eat lunch. At the start of Year 7 she didn’t have any friends. Now the School Project Manager says she is out in the playground with different groups and is fitting in much better.

For young people with SEN, approximately 20% experience bullying which is a key inhibitor of a successful transition upon starting secondary school.

– ‘Institute of Education, What Makes a Successful Transition from Primary to Secondary School?, 2008

Early identification of those who are likely to become NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) is important and support should be provided prior to their disengagement. Many schemes come into play only when the problem has become acute and the young person has been persistently truant or become NEET. However there is evidence that poor educational outcomes and negative attitudes towards schooling can have their roots in primary school.’

– The Work Foundation and Private Equity Foundation, Lost in transition?, 2012

The proportion of children in the moderate to severe range of difficulties dropped dramatically after counselling, from 51% to 18%.

– Place2Be, Key Stage 3 outcomes Report, 2013

The importance of early intervention

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SafeguardingHaving a Head of Safeguarding at Place2Be has meant that regular safeguarding training can take place for all staff. It has also meant that staff have access to relevant expertise and knowledge to enable them to keep children, young people and their families safe. This role is crucial in monitoring decision making and outcomes on cases of concern and adds to the robust data keeping and reporting. The Head of Safeguarding is responsible for keeping Place2Be up to date with national developments and new initiatives and disseminating this information throughout the organisation.

The Head of Safeguarding is also available to Head Teachers for consultation on specific cases, issues or training.

Sharon Cole,DIP, Accredited Safeguarding Trainer, Place2Be Head of Safeguarding

7 timesChildren and young people will try to disclose 7 times before finally disclosing.

NSPCC

98%Research has shown that when children disclose, 98% tell the truth.

Focus area

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Jess was a polite and reserved year 7 student who was not involved with drugs or gangs. She was diligent and tried her best to do well academically. She had close friends, lived with both of her employed parents and attended after-school music and dance classes. A teacher referred her because of ‘the sad look in her eyes’. The sad look was the only clue to Jess’ hidden traumatic family life. Her Place2Be assessment revealed that she had been concealing years of domestic abuse at the hands of her alcoholic father. Jess had even once alerted the police following a particularly violent attack by her father which resulted in serious injuries for both Jess and her mother. However, somehow the case was never referred to Social Care, nor was the school alerted.

Place2Be took a holistic approach, supporting both Jess and her mother to help them cope. We worked with Jess’ mother to explore ways she could best support her daughter and herself, being alerted to support groups and networks. Jess’ one-to-one counsellor helped her to express her long-buried pain and most secretive fears through artistic media; where before she was unable to find the words, she now had an outlet for her once hidden sadness.

The profound damage of withstanding years of dreadful abuse to Jess’ self-esteem was not obvious. However, once it was addressed through counselling at Place2Be, there was a significant jump in her perception of self-worth

which was noted by herself, her mother and her teacher. By the end of their time with Place2Be, Jess’ mother described feeling ready to move on and to start developing a new life with her daughter, on firmer footing and, for the first time that she could remember, with optimism.

A sad look in her eyesJess

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Building trust changes lives

TomaToma, a year 8 pupil, was finding secondary school a real struggle. He received support for his special educational needs, including problems with communication and delayed speech, made no easier by the fact that English was not his first language. Despite being a friendly, enthusiastic student at primary school, at secondary school he was introverted and found things difficult. His mother contacted the school when she had seen on his social media page that he was planning to kill himself.

Working with the school, immediate steps were taken by Place2Be to ensure Toma’s safety by liaising with his mum, school, social services and the local hospital. The School Project Manager was on hand to console his extremely distressed mother and, together, they decided to refer him for one-to-one counselling with Place2Be.

Toma had come to the UK from Romania with his mum, leaving his dad behind which had put enormous strain on their relationships. Angry and hurt due to the neglect by his dad, his behaviour was defiant and challenging at home. However, he never expressed this at school, only becoming more introverted. The atmosphere at home was extremely difficult; he and his mother were very socially isolated and his mother was quite depressed. With only the computer to relate to, this social media post was viewed as the ultimate cry for help.

Despite concerns that it would be difficult to engage with him, over several weeks Toma formed a fantastic relationship with his counsellor. Their role plays, games and art activities restored his confidence and trust. A year on, and he is back to his old smiley self and this change is having a very positive effect on his family. His mum is more positive and has time for herself. She has found a boyfriend and now they all go on outings at the weekend. Toma has become involved with his local community centre and helps them with their computer system. He even helped organise a special Mother’s Day event.

Between 1 in every 12 and 1 in 15 children and young people deliberately self-harm.– Mental Health Foundation, Truth hurts, 2006

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In one inner-London school with quite a high transient population we located 10 students still in the school, who accessed counselling when they were in Years 7 or 8. Eight students were still in mainstream education, and all eight were on track to achieve the GCSE government floor target of five A*-C grades (including English and Maths) in 2014.

Rigorous assessment and substantial dataAt Reach Academy Feltham, we believe in an integrated approach to supporting children to succeed and live happy and fulfilled lives. It is services like Place2Be, alongside our in-house procedures and pastoral work that help us to achieve this goal.

Due to Place2Be’s rigorous assessment tools, we now have substantial data available for children referred for one-to-one counselling. In addition, our teachers reported that all children’s difficulties were ‘much better’ after coming to the Place2Be and that for three children classroom learning had really improved.

Place2Be’s self-referral service, which is open to all children, is another huge benefit for us. This allows children to visit either in groups or individually and not to feel stigmatised by the process: all feedback showed that they found the service extremely helpful to find solutions

for a wide range of problems, whether friendship fallouts, dealing with bereavement or emotional issues.

In addition to supporting students, the Place2Be School Project Manager spent 88 hours with parents, 35 hours with teaching staff, nine hours with the Parent Inclusion Officer, and eight hours with City Year Volunteers.

Ultimately, it’s always going to be impossible to attribute Place2Be as the main contributor to learning outcomes. But from tracking data taken from staff about behaviour and learning, end-of-term reports which detail the measurable impact on children’s lives, and feedback from throughout the school, I’m not in any doubt as to the positive impact that Place2Be has had in our school.

Alison Richards,Assistant Head Teacher, Reach Academy, Feltham

Tracking outcomes

‘You’re not stuck in a cage, where all your feelings and emotions are beside you and you don’t know what to do.’

Chelsea had a difficult home life and did not get on with her mother, resulting in frequent arguments. Chelsea attended 27 Place2Be one-to-one sessions in total and has matured into a sensible, quiet young lady. She is no longer as attention-seeking as she used to be and no longer has Learning Support Unit support. Chelsea has 97% attendance and is working towards grades C and above. She is excelling in English and Science.’

Pastoral Support Manager, Year 10

75% of teachers,

86%of parents; and

79%of young people thought that young people were better after coming to Place2Be

– Place2Be, Key Stage 3 Outcomes Report, 2013

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Thanks to Impetus-PEF who support Place2Be’s work in secondary schools.

Thanks to pupils at Prendergast Vale College who provided artwork for this publication.

We know that the transition to secondary school – especially for those young people whose backgrounds are disadvantaged or otherwise challenging – can be a vital touch point if they are to succeed in education. Place2Be’s pioneering work addresses problems before they become entrenched and is helping to ensure that all our young people get the chance to fulfil their potential. That’s why Impetus-PEF is proud to be a sponsor of this important work.’

Daniela Barone Soares,Chief Executive Officer, Impetus – Private Equity Foundation

Place2Be is a registered charity in England and Wales Number 1040756 and in Scotland Number SC038649 and a company limited by guarantee Number 02876150.

Place2Be13/14 Angel Gate326 City RoadLondonEC1V 2PT

Tel: 0207 923 5500Email: enquiries@place2be.org.ukwww.place2be.org.uk

ROYAL PATRONHRH The Duchess of Cambridge