Supporting kids' mental health

Place2Be provides mental health services and training to schools to support the whole school community and improve the emotional wellbeing of pupils, families, teachers and staff.

Established in London in 1994, Place2Be has been supporting children’s mental health for over 25 years. With one in six children and young people experiencing a diagnosable mental health condition, and 50% of mental health issues established before the age of 14, children’s mental health is a growing problem and requires early intervention.

Since 1994, Place2Be has grown to reach school communities throughout the UK. Place2Be’s core delivery involves embedding counsellors into school communities, to offer a professional and accessible mental health service for children, their families and their teachers. These services include one-to-one counselling for children with the most urgent needs, a self-referral service, and consultation for parents and teachers. It currently has counsellors embedded into 386 schools in England, Scotland and Wales.

Thanks to the generous support of players of People’s Postcode Lottery, last year Place2Be worked with 700 schools and reached over 380,000 pupils through in-school services and training.

The mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on many children, young people and their families is evident across the UK. According to Place2Be’s frontline staff, 85% of the young people they support in secondary schools have been negatively affected by the pandemic.

Thanks to support from players of the People’s Postcode Lottery, Place2Be was able to continue providing support during the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, at a time when its support has been needed more than ever. During the first lockdown, it was able to:

• Provide support for families remotely, delivering almost 35,000 phone sessions to children, young people, families and school staff
• Provide resources to support schools and communities, viewed or downloaded over 85,000 times
• Partner with leading providers to offer digital support tools for young people, including an app to help reduce anxiety and access to an online community with wellbeing resources and counselling. It continues to offer these tools to the young people it works with, giving them greater choice and flexibility.

The support offered by Place2Be will be needed more than ever before over the coming year, but thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery, it can continue to grow its services to reach more children, young people, parents, and school communities than ever before.

£1.5 million has been raised for Place2Be thanks to players of People's Postcode Lottery.