Latest figures show 84 Cheshire East children and young people attended hospital in the past six months because they self-harmed or have mental health issues, writes Belinda Ryan.
Cheshire East Council now has an agreement which means an A&E department notifies an officer in the early help department of cases so schools are aware and can provide support.
Claire Williamson, interim director of early help and prevention, told meeting of the children and families committee: “Where any child or young person presented into A&E in regard to self-harm or any issue in regards to their well-being or mental health, my team are notified immediately which means we get that information and we inform the school.
“That’s a real plus for us and has taken a huge amount of work, but is working effectively.
“Within the last six months we’ve had 84 notifications from the A&E department that have gone then directly to the school and then, from that point of view, we’ve looked at how we directly put a package of support around that family or that child.”
She said the council had also introduced the My Happy Mind Programme in 60 schools and it’s now going to be rolled out in every primary school in the borough.
The programme is based on supplied lesson plans focussing on well-being which are presented by the teacher.
“We will be the only local authority that’s been able to roll out that programme to every single primary school and I think it’s really important that every primary school has access to this programme,” said Ms Williamson.
She said the well-being of children had taken a “real dip” recently “and we need to ensure there’s time and support in there, so that programme helps children to identify their own well-being but also supports the school in regard to strategies, how we will support that well-being and escalation of need”.
Cllr Laura Smith said some children don’t even have a bed to sleep in so the cost of living crisis will impact even further on their well-being and performance at school.
She said the mental health and well-being of children who don’t have an “adequate home” would be affected even more by witnessing their parents struggle with ever increasing financial pressures as food and fuel prices soar.
“In the areas we represent in Crewe there’s children with no beds, things like this, people haven’t got a mattress, a bed to sleep in.
“How can you then go and have a healthy day at school where you’re going to be learning and taking on board?
“I think this is one of the huge crises so many of our children are facing – they don’t have a home which is adequate and that obviously has a huge mental health impact, as does watching their parents struggling with the cost of living crisis that we’re now starting to really feel.
“I feel that it’s very difficult for us to talk about mental health and well-being of children without addressing the fact that so many of these children are going to be witnessing huge financial pressures in their household and that burden doesn’t go away when they go into school, that stays with them.
“As somebody who, as a child, experienced it, the weight of it is incredible, incredibly hard.”
Clare Williamson said: “As part of early help and prevention we will be looking at holistic needs of the children and that, absolutely, takes on board in regards of understanding what is going on within that family home.
“We will need to be looking at how we support our families.”
(pixabay image creative commons licence, display purposes only)
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