Children & Young People’s Mental Health & Wellbeing

Understanding Mental Health Support for Children and Young People in North Somerset

The Right Service, Right Time guide provides an overview of the mental health support system for children and young people in North Somerset. It is intended to assist professionals in identifying concerns early and accessing the appropriate level of support.

It is designed to be used alongside existing resources, including the Effective Support Guide—which outlines the local safeguarding framework and the Directory of Mental Health and Wellbeing Services, which contains up-to-date contact information and referral pathways for local provision.

Support in North Somerset is structured around two key frameworks: iThrive, which is centred on the needs and preferences of the child or young person, and the Continuum of Need, which helps determine the appropriate level of intervention. These frameworks together define a five-stage model of support, ranging from universal advice and self-help to more specialist, intensive services.

Thriving – Universal

The child or young person is currently showing typical emotional and behavioural development for their age and does not need any specific mental health support at this time. With ongoing support from school, family, and the wider community, they are likely to continue doing well.

It’s important to recognize that some children may be more likely to face mental health challenges because of factors like poverty, racism, discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, or disability. If support is needed in the future, it should take these experiences into account. Even now, helping children build good mental health habits and resilience is a valuable part of their overall development.

Getting Advice – Universal

The child or young person may have mild or temporary difficulties with their mental health or have fluctuating or ongoing difficulties that they are currently self-managing. There is a need to share information that will help the individual and their family find the best way of supporting their mental health and wellbeing.
They may have:
● have mild/temporary difficulties with mental health

● be self-managing ongoing difficulties

● have experienced a panic attack for the first time

● have an unexplained absence from school or another setting they usually attend

● be having friendship difficulties

● be struggling with a school transition

● be feeling things are ‘too much’

● have recently experienced or be experiencing a traumatic event

At this stage, the child or young person can still benefit from support at the universal level such as signposting, self-management, and one-off contacts

Getting Help: Additional

Difficulties with the child or young person’s mental health now risk having a significant impact on them educationally and socially. If issues are ignored at this stage, they may get worse, so it is crucial to intervene as fast as possible.

The child or young person will need some targeted support to help them achieve specific goals. The child or young person might:

• become disinterested in school and other activities
• have unusual stomach aches and headaches or feel tired
• become more isolated
• be feeling bullied or start to bully others
• be irritable or impatient
• be frequently sad or tearful
• engage in milder forms of self-harm, for example, scratching
• have problems with sleep
• be increasingly late or absent from school, with less than 80% attendance
• spend more time on the internet/social media, especially late at night
• be increasingly quiet and withdrawn
• change their eating habits
• be facing a family breakdown, bereavement, or a traumatic event

Getting More Help: Intensive

Even with some extra support, the child or young persons mental health hasn’t improved, and they may now need more joined-up and intensive help from different services working together.

At this stage, they might be struggling to cope day-to-day, and without further support, there could be a risk of harm to themselves or others. They may be finding it hard to take part in everyday life—whether that’s at school, at home, or with friends.

This level of support looks at the child or young persons overall needs and makes sure the right professionals are working together to help them.

The child or young person might:

• be in need of constant supervision
• no longer be managing self-care, and be experiencing distress daily
• be increasingly absent from school, with less than 60% attendance
• engage in substance abuse/risky sexual behaviours
• shut out family and friends, be increasingly isolated, stop leaving the house
• be unable to sleep till early hours, wake at night, or have disturbing dreams
• not be eating/overeating
• be self-harming and/or having thoughts of or attempts at suicide
• be facing family breakdown, bereavement or a traumatic event

Getting Risk Support: Specialist

Children and young people in this group might have the same difficulties outlined in the previous two stages, but despite having been offered help, progress is not being made and they remain a risk to themselves or others.

The child or young person requires specialist/ statutory integrated support. More than one agency is normally involved, with a coordinated multi-agency approach with a Lead Practitioner from a statutory role.

Statutory services include Police, Youth Justice Service, Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services, and Children’s Social Care.

The child or young person might:

• routinely go into crisis
• no longer be attending school
• have issues with substance abuse or other risk-based behaviours that pose a serious threat of harm to themselves or others
• self-harm frequently or in particularly extreme ways
• be at risk of a family or caring situation completely breaking down
• try to harm others
• have a severe eating disorder that has become life-threatening
• be at imminent risk of ending their own life