Virtual School social, emotional and mental health

Virtual School social, emotional and mental health

The Department for Education has published a list of resources dedicated to children's mental health and well-being.

Children's mental health

The Department for Education has published a list of resources dedicated to children's mental health and well-being.  It really is a comprehensive list for children, parents, carers and school staff to get the advice and help they need Mental health resources for children, parents, carers and school staff from GOV.UK.

Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families

The Anna Freud National Centre for Children and families  believe that by working in collaboration with communities and professionals, that together we can scale up our mental health support for millions of infants, children and young people and their families, and deliver timely evidence-based support for all.

Anna Freud website

The AFC Crisis Messenger text service is a free, confidential, 24/7 text message support service for anyone who is feeling overwhelmed or is struggling to cope. The service is staffed by trained volunteers who will work with you to take your next steps towards feeling better. 

The AFC can help with issues such as anxiety, worry, panic attacks, bullying and depression and are here to talk at any time of day or night. 

If you need support, you can text AFC to 85258.

Worcestershire Starting Well Partnership – Support for young people

The Starting Well Partnership believe it is important that children and young people grow up safe from hard, to reach their potential and to lead happy, health and fulfilled lives.  There are 6 teams working out of Family Hubs located in districts across the county can offer support to you if you are struggling with confidence, bullying, health, sexuality and identity or your well-being. 

Starting Well Worcestershire

Traumatic bereavement

Traumatically bereaved children and young people experience significant distress and difficulties, over and above a more typical grief. Traumatic bereavement can be easily missed or misunderstood by parents, teachers and even bereavement practitioners, meaning that children’s difficulties are not recognised. The UK Trauma Council has free evidence-based resources to support schools, colleges and practitioners, parents and carers working with traumatically bereaved children and young people.

UK Trauma Council

Staying safe online

The Children’s Commissioner is launching a guide for parents and carers on online sexual harassment and how they can support children to stay safe online.  

Children's Commissioner Guide

“The things I wish my parents had known…” draws together advice from 16 to 21-year-olds on how parents should manage tricky conversations around sexual harassment and access to inappropriate content, including pornography. 

An overriding message is that parents and carers should start these challenging conversations early. The focus groups suggest broaching topics before a child is given a phone or a social media account, which is often around the age of 9 or 10. The guide focuses on issues such as:

  • easily accessed online pornography
  • pressure to send nude pictures
  • sexualised bullying
  • editing pictures and body image 
  • peer pressure

We hope that this guide will serve as a useful starting point to raise awareness and understanding of online harassment, and to complement messages central to the new RSE curriculum.

Useful links

70 Strategies

Strategies to help looked after and previously looked after children and young people succeed in schools and education settings. This is a valuable tool designed to help all those who support young people to offer the necessary skills, knowledge and understanding needed to offer high quality support, sensitive interventions, improving outcomes.  

Action for Happiness

Action for Happiness might help you to find a little joy in each day, they offer monthly calendars packed with actions to help create a happier and kinder world. Download them at: Monthly Action Calendars (Action for Happiness website. You can also learn about the Ten Keys to Happier Living (Action for Happiness website.They are based on a review of the latest research from psychology and related fields. Everyone's path to happiness is different, but the evidence suggests these Ten Keys consistently tend to have a positive impact on people's happiness and well-being.

Attachment Research Community

The ARC supports the development of best attachment and trauma aware practice in education in order to benefit everyone's mental health and well-being. ARC supports members to develop and embed their practice.

A new report has been published by ARC laying out the recommendations and rationale of the signatory organisations for policymaking in England to support recovery and build resilience for all members of the school community and especially the most vulnerable, in order to improve performance, mental and wellbeing and to narrow attainment gaps.

Child mental health centre

At the Centre for Child Mental Health we have experts in all aspects of mental health to support your CPD and training needs. We understand the challenging task of enabling troubled children and young people to thrive.

Motional
Motional provides an easy-to-use online tool for identifying, assessing, and improving the emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people.  It is based on Professor Jaak Panksepp’s research on emotional systems in the brain and Dr Margot Sunderland’s extensive research, studies and expertise in executive functional skills.

50-Daily tasks

"Students learn best when they feel welcomed, comfortable and safe"

Here you will find a friendly guide to give you ideas of daily tasks to help improve well-being at home or in school for your foster child.

The home environment has a major impact on a child’s physical and mental health. Download this free guide to find out what you can do to make your child’s wellbeing the supportive infrastructure they need.
50 daily task to improve well-being from The Parents Guide (PDF)

It gives advice on:

  • how to create a whole school culture, including promoting positive mental health
  • understanding the link between mental health and behaviour
  • how to identify children with possible mental health problems
  • where and how to put in place support, including working with external agencies where required

It also provides links to sources of further support and guidance.

Place2Be is committed to helping children with their mental health, with the aim of early intervention to prevent life-long mental health issues.

  • we provide support early to spot mental health problems before they develop and help children cope with challenges throughout their lives
  • we use an effective therapeutic approach which is backed by research and combines several ways of working
  • we offer a menu of different services, including advice and support for families and school staff, to build resilience and raise awareness of mental health across the whole school community.

Further support:

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