Lancashire County Council and NHS connect for Children’s Mental Health Week

The council works in partnership with the NHS to support young people's mental health and emotional well-being.

A total of 11 Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) are working within education settings to ensure children experiencing mental health issues get the right support to remain in school.

The teams play a vital part in helping children and young people who are experiencing emotional well-being issues such as mild anxiety, low mood, or behavioural difficulties.

They also work alongside other services such as child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to ensure that children and young people get the support they need.

More than 100 education settings receive this support across Lancashire, with the county council investing more than £945,000 of additional funding this year to help grow provision in Preston and add provision in Fylde.

Lancashire County Councillor Michael Green, cabinet member for Health and Wellbeing, said: "We at Lancashire County Council are proud to support this week's Children's Mental Health Week which encourages people to connect with others in healthy, rewarding meaningful ways.

"We understand that the mental health support that our teams provide is incredibly important to all the young people that it helps.

"It is great to see how opportunities to increase this provision are being sought and how we are working so well with our NHS partners."

Helen Rimmer, children and young people’s mental health programme manager at NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, said: “MHSTs equip pupils with tools and strategies to deal with life’s everyday challenges.

"We are proud of the work being undertaken by teams in our area and as part of Children’s Mental Health Week we wanted to shine a light on our commitment to improving the mental health and wellbeing of our children and young people."

A further team in East Lancashire is due to start its training in October 2023, which will bring the total of MHSTs in Lancashire to 12 by the end of the year.