At Stead Lane Primary School, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing of every member of our school community and recognise how important mental health and wellbeing is to our lives. We recognise that children's mental health and overall wellbeing can impact their learning and attainment and therefore, we aim to create an environment which is safe and nurturing for all. We also deliver a comprehensive PSHE/RSE curriculum where we cover a variety of topics relevant to children's lives today.
We also know there are times you might need additional support and knowing where to find this support is vitally important. Mental Health can be a difficult topic to talk about but here at Stead Lane we want to reassure you that we will listen and it is something that we take seriously. As the Senior Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead, I want to be able to give you the tools you need to feel confident in knowing where to and how to access further support should you need it.
Mr Philip Pallas, Senior Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead
Who can I contact?
Mr Philip Pallas - Deputy Head, Senior Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead, Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs Vicky Rowley - Headteacher, Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs Stephanie Bowness - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs Catherine Johnson - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Mrs Helen Cotton - Pastoral Support
Who can help outside of school?
CAHMS
(Children and Adolescents mental health services) are a NHS service who can help support the emotional wellbeing of children aged 4- 18 . They can support and offer advice for children experiencing mild to moderate emotional difficulties.
Website: https://www.cntw.nhs.uk/services/children-young-peoples-service-northumberland/
Telephone: 01670 502 700
Universal Crisis Team
The Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team is a team of experienced mental health staff, which includes nurses, social workers, psychiatrists and pharmacy staff. It offers assessment and home treatment for people over 16 experiencing a mental health crisis, as an alternative to hospital admission.
- Telephone for Young People/Carers making referrals 24/7: 0303 123 1146 or freephone 0800 652 2861
- For Deaf service users please text 07887 625 277
The team operates 24 hours a day 7 days a week. However, the crisis team does not provide an ’emergency’ service such as a 999 response.
Mind
Charity who support and offer advice to anyone experiencing Mental health problems. They can offer advice and support for helping others too.
Website: https://www.mind.org.uk
Telephone: 0300 123 3393
Young Minds
Charity who offer support and advice for young people experiencing Mental Health difficulties. It offers support and guidance for parents through its comprehensive website as well as offering webchat service and free telephone advice and signposting.
Website: https://www.youngminds.org.uk/
Telephone: 0808 802 5544
Primary Mental Health Workers
This is a targeted, early intervention children’s mental health service for children and young people presenting with moderate mental health issues. PMHWs work with children and young people (0-18), parents / carers and professionals across Northumberland, providing interventions on a one to one and group basis with young people and their families.
Website/Padlet: https://padlet.com/nies1/be-you-9gw5uoyoj0e8t5ko/wish/2276356223
Mental Health Support Teams
The Department for Education and NHS England have made funding available to develop a new programme to help improve children and young people’s mental health by creating new Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) within schools. These teams help children and young people with mild to moderate mental health needs and provide training and support for school staff. Northumberland was chosen as one of twelve Trailblazer sites to pilot this new programme. Initially it was delivered in the Blyth and Hexham areas, which has now been expanded to include Ashington and Bedlington (2020-2021). The hope is that, funding permitting, there will be an opportunity to expand across the county.
The team in Trailblazer schools includes Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs), who provide low intensity interventions for children and young people with mild to moderate mental health needs and a Peer Mentor, who provides peer mentor programmes as part of the Be You team.
Website: https://www.northumbria.nhs.uk/our-services/childrens-services/primary-mental-health-work/#0e090cd4
Telephone: 01661 864588
Email: PMHW@northumbria-healthcare.nhs.uk
Working with the whole family
The following are links to useful websites to support the whole family;
Website: https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/schools/resources/2022-sharing-with-families-toolkit
Cygnus Support
Cygnus helps people in Northumberland to improve their mental health and wellbeing. Its self-help guidance and counselling services support people to manage their symptoms and prevent them from getting worse. Cygnus Support is one of the voluntary sector partners in the Be You Northumberland programme and Amanda Sayers is the Co-ordinator at Cygnus working with parents and carers of children and young people offering a choice of emotional health and wellbeing support. Amanda is supporting parents and carers to help them manage their own wellbeing whilst also empowering and upskilling them to support the emotional wellbeing of their children. If you, as a parent or carer, feel like you or your family are struggling emotionally and could do with some help, please reach out as a first step and contact Cygnus by telephoning, texting or emailing Amanda at Cygnus.
Website: https://www.cygnussupport.com/our-work/social-prescribing/
Telephone: 07377 265 036
Email: admin@cygnussupport.com
Place2Be
They have created a wealth of resources and activities to support the wellbeing and mental health of the whole family.
Website: https://www.place2be.org.uk/our-services/parents-and-carers/wellbeing-resources-for-families
Mindstars
Mindstars support children and family mental health and wellbeing through a full family approach to understanding and supporting Mental Health.
Website: https://www.mindstars.co.uk/
Wellbeing
There are a number of free services available through the Northumberland County Council Wellbeing team. They can work with you on, how making some simple lifestyle choices, can improve health and finances. For example, the savings that can be made from quitting smoking, reducing alcohol intake, healthy cooking on a budget or exploring some of the free options around increasing your physical activity. Visit their specialist pages about wellbeing:
The following is a booklet created with Anna Freud and the Princess of Wales to support talking about mental health with young children: https://www.annafreud.org/schools-and-colleges/resources/advice-for-parents-and-carers-talking-mental-health-with-young-people-at-primary-school/
Parent Info is a collaboration between CEOP and Parent Zone. Parent Zone was founded in 2005 and has a track record of providing information, support and advice to parents. In recent years, Parent Zone’s work has focused on the impact of digital technologies on families. We provide information, resources and training for parents and those who work with them.
CEOP is the child protection command of the National Crime Agency. CEOP reaches over three million children and young people a year through its Thinkuknow education programme and regularly conveys its vital online safety messages to over 100,000 practitioners (such as social workers, teachers and police officers) registered to their network, who cascade these messages directly to children and young people.
Parent Info provides high quality information to parents and carers about their children’s wellbeing and resilience. The information ranges across a wide range of subject matter, from difficult topics about sex, relationships and the internet or body image and peer pressure to broader parenting topics like ‘how much sleep do teenagers need?’
In line with CEOP’s Thinkuknow programme, some of the content covers internet safety, but it all starts from the assumption that young people make little distinction between their online and offline lives and the issues for parents are often the same. The aim is to help parents help their children be discriminating, web-literate and resilient.
Further information around Parent Zone can be found here: https://parentzone.org.uk/library
We would also like to bring your attention to two documents from the Marie Collins Foundation: