Tameside Mental Health Support Team

Mental health support teams were introduced as part of a nationally programmed expansion in Children and Young People’s mental health services set out in the Green Paper: Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision (2017).[1] The central purpose of mental health support teams, as set out in national policy, is to provide specific extra capacity for early intervention and ongoing help, with three specified functions:

  1. Function 1: providing direct support to children and young people with mild to moderate mental health issues;
  2. Function 2: supporting educational settings (specifically the senior mental health lead in that setting – where established) to introduce or develop their whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing;
  3. Function 3: giving advice to staff in educational settings and liaising with external specialist services to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education.

Established in 2022, the mental health support team in Tameside is dedicated to promoting the wellbeing of children and young people by offering high quality, evidence based mental health support. We collaborate with Tameside Oldham Glossop Mind and currently operate in 40 schools across the Tameside area, serving students aged 5 to 18. Our reach includes 95% of high schools and all colleges in the locality. We are proud to say that our current reach covers 53% of the Tameside pupil population, meeting the government target of 50% by 2025.

We offer a comprehensive support package that includes parenting guidance, low-intensity cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) informed support, and CBT with a fully trained therapist. Our approach is grounded in brief, evidence-based interventions, ensuring that our mental health strategies are proven to have a positive impact.

Our educational mental health practitioners utilise these brief interventions to address emerging mental health issues early, providing support that is both focused and time-efficient. To maintain the highest standards of support, we invest in ongoing training for our staff, including courses such as supervision skills and the senior wellbeing practitioner course. This commitment to professional development ensures our team has the knowledge and expertise to meet the evolving needs of students and schools.

In Tameside, we work collaboratively with the Tameside educational psychologists to support the whole school and college approach. They have partnered with the Salford educational psychology service to deliver the emotionally friendly settings programme. Through this partnership, we tailor our approach to the unique needs and wishes of each school.

Our practitioners are currently offering transition workshops, and we plan to collaborate with health mentors (0-19 service) and education welfare to extend this initiative to every setting across Tameside by 2026. We’re working closely with high schools to participate in transition days, providing bespoke packages based on each school’s plan.

We are also offering exam stress workshops, mind and mood groups, assemblies, and coffee mornings. We actively participate in parents’ evenings and school events, aiming to be more visible in the community during school holidays with parent webinars and focused groups. Additionally, we’re helping schools develop a programme of mental health ambassadors, with applications pouring in from enthusiastic young people. We also provide advice and training packages to teaching staff on how to best support the wellbeing and mental health of children and young people.

At our core, we strive to extend our reach as widely as possible by focusing on the three main functions of the mental health support team. We deliver personalised 1:1 interventions, adhere to the eight principles of the whole school and college approach and provide signposting to ensure that children, young people, families, and professionals receive the right support at the right time. We take great pride in our work and the achievements we’ve made in such a short space of time.