Healthy Young Minds

The Healthy Young Minds Project, commissioned by Cheshire East Council, is a five year programme that will offer accessible, inclusive support to children and young people in Cheshire East, helping to build resilience and achieve positive emotional wellbeing.

If you would like to be kept informed about Healthy Young Minds and opportunities to get involved please share your details here to join our mailing list, or if you would like to find out more about the project please contact Ange Richardson CVS Sector Development Officer at: ange.richardson@cvsce.org.uk 
 

What is Healthy Young Minds?

Healthy Young Minds offers an accessible, inclusive service aimed at building resilience in children and young people (CYP) and their families, to address emotional wellbeing issues, at the earliest opportunity, to enable CYP to live their best lives in the future.

Healthy Young Minds will run from 2024 to 2029 (with an option to extend to 2031). A digital offer, to provide virtual support for CYP and their families, will form part of the wider Healthy Young Minds service, following further procurement.

The service model was extensively co-produced with an wide range of stakeholders, including children and young people, parents/carers, education providers, professionals (including health, social care, and police) - with thirty-six focus groups, comprising over 300 participants. Children and young people will continue to be at the heart of Healthy Young Minds.

The Healthy Young Minds service was initially launched to schools on 18/6/24 at a Senior Mental Health Leads Network meeting and will provide integrated support, in partnership with children and young people, their families and professionals and help to reduce future demand on a wide range of specialist/statutory services.

Two providers, Just Drop In (operating in the North of Cheshire East) and Visyon (operating in the Central and South of Cheshire East) will offer a flexible service supporting CYP, which gives CYP choice and control over their care.

These services will target the upper quadrants of the Thrive model (Thriving, Getting Advice and Getting Support).

The Healthy Young Minds project also includes the establishment of a Healthy Young Minds Alliance; where providers will work together, towards a shared ambition of building resilience in CYP and their families, to achieve consistency and equality of delivery, address gaps in services as a collaborative and provide a mechanism for channelling funding, to enhance the impact of early intervention.

CVS Cheshire East will be responsible for establishing and chairing the Healthy Young Minds Alliance with the key deliverables below.

Next steps 

The Healthy Young Minds Steering Group, instrumental in the coproduction of Healthy Young Minds, will continue to oversee the work of the Healthy Young Minds Alliance.

• Quarterly E-bulletins with key information and resources for Alliance members will commence. Sign up HERE to be part of the Alliance and receive E-bulletins, if you haven’t done so already.
• A Healthy Young Minds One Year On face-to-face annual event is being planned for mid-summer 2025 – more information and booking arrangements will be in the E-bulletin.
• An Annual Report detailing the key achievements delivered by the Healthy Young Minds providers will be published and shared late Spring 2025.

In summary, the mental health of children and young people has never been more important, nor more challenging to safeguard. Pressures from all angles are weighing on systems, designed to support children and young people to take control of their mental health and get access to the right measures, at the right time.

The work already underway by colleagues across education, public health, the NHS and the VCFSE Sector continues. The establishment of the Healthy Young Minds Alliance in Cheshire East, is a model to support ongoing collaborative systems - with the shared goal of making the lives of all children and young people immeasurably better.  

Over the contract period of Healthy Young Minds, there will be challenges to face and overcome. But together, we can help to create a future where every young mind is healthy, every voice is heard, and every individual child and young person can thrive. We look forward to working together.

Healthy Young Minds Providers

Solihull Approach FREE Online Courses

As part of the HYM service, Just Drop-In and Visyon are pleased to announce that they have partnered with Solihull Approach to provide FREE online evidence-based courses, developed by psychologists and professionals, for all partners and practitioners of Cheshire East’s Children’s Workforce. These courses can be accessed anytime, anywhere:

• Understanding brain development: insights into the science behind children's brain development and emotional health, helping families make informed decisions that support healthy cognitive growth.
• Understanding trauma: specialist education on trauma recognition, processing and recovery
• Understanding attachment: strategies for open and effective communication that will strengthen the parent-child bond and promote emotional well-being.

You can access these courses by visiting the webpage here following the simple registration process, and entering the access code WHEATSHEAF-PRF.

We have a thought leadership piece going into more detail which can be found here.

Resources

Visit the Healthy Young Minds resources page to see potential funding sources for charitable organisations and social enterprises along with the NHS Cheshire & Merseyside Children & Young People's Mental Health Plan 2024 - 2026 and more.

Other Sources of Support

Urgent Support