What is HeadStart doing?
HeadStart looks at how young people’s mental wellbeing is affected by their experiences at school, their ability to access the community services they need, their home life and relationship with family members, and their interaction with digital technology.
Working in schools, and with families, charities, community and public services, the HeadStart partnerships are designing, testing and implementing different approaches to:
- build young people’s emotional resilience
- respond to the early signs of common mental health problems
- provide additional joined-up support when and where it is needed.
By raising awareness of young people’s mental wellbeing, the HeadStart partnerships also support adults to know how to spot the early signs of problems, know what they can do to provide support, and where to go to get more specialised help.
People in the lead
Young people with first-hand experience of the issues they face are best placed to shape potential solutions. Because of this they play a key role in all aspects of the programme, including design, commissioning, delivery and evaluation.
Each partnership has a panel of young people that contributes to and shapes the design of services in that area. They can also get involved through awareness raising campaigns, mentoring, online surveys and advisory groups, and are even involved in the recruitment of new HeadStart staff.
