Wigan 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.

Our Aims

Working as part of the THRIVE model, we aim to align with the ‘getting advice’ and ‘getting help’ aspects of the framework. We achieve this by providing three core functions:

  • Delivering evidence-based interventions for mild-to-moderate mental health issues (including but not exclusive to: Generalised anxiety – Worry management; Specific phobias – graded exposure; Low mood – behavioural activation; Sleep problems; Parenting for anxiety (under 12s); Self esteem)
  • Supporting the senior mental health lead (where established) in each school or college to introduce or develop their whole school or college approach. This includes running well-being assemblies, completing parent sessions at family hubs and offering mental health workshops
  • Offer timely advice to school and college staff, and liaise with external specialist services to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education. As a team we provide regular consultation slots with schools to explore avenues for support

Wigan’s current offer covers 38 educational establishments, including a mix of primary schools, high schools and colleges.

Why this matters

In 2018 it was identified in the ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision: a Green Paper and Next Steps’ that “Childhood should be the happiest time in a person’s life, yet for thousands of children who develop mental illness in childhood or adolescence, the reality can be very different. One in ten (around 850,000) children and young people have a diagnosable mental health condition. These illnesses can have a devastating impact on their physical health, their relationships and their future prospects. The challenge often extends into a person’s adult life, with half of all mental health conditions beginning before the age of 14.” As a result of this mental health support teams: are in place to address this ongoing difficulty, providing support to children and families to overcome difficulties where possible, and point them in the right direction, if our service is not the one best fit to address their current challenges.

What we have achieved

Over the past 12 months (April 2024 – 2025) the Wigan mental health support team: have provided support to over 700 young people within the 38 schools who have opted-in to receive mental health support teams support. This was achieved using: 1-1 interventions, group work sessions or effective signposting to the appropriate services. Less than 3% of the young people were ever re-referred though the service requesting further support. Over this period less than 2% then needed an onward referral to more intensive support services.

What’s next?

The goal for the future is for mental health support teams: to span 100% coverage of schools by 2029/2030, to provide, effective, low intensity, early interventions to young people and families in need.