To coincide with Children’s Mental Health Week (5 – 11 Feb) the BBP is keen to highlight new joint funded partnership projects being delivered across Hounslow to support Children and Young People with their mental health.
Return to School – Delivered by Positive Support Group Consultancy
Return to School is a positive behavioural outreach service that aims to stabilise the education provision for children and young people (CYP) at risk of education breakdown and/or support CYP who have been out of school.
The service provides direct assessment and support to the CYP, their families, and those in their network. They will identify and mitigate barriers, build resilience, and increase understanding of the CYP’s unique needs. They also support with the development of a more consistent high-quality SEND support offer for Hounslow’s mainstream schools as well as aiming to reduce inappropriate referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and prevent costs in specialist and crisis pathways.
Hounslow Family Support Pilot – Delivered by Contact
This pilot project provides direct advice and support to 150 families over a 12-month period via group sessions and 1:2:1 advice. This is separate from the existing Contact Helping Hand Project and includes families of children 0-25 with any type of additional need and/or disability, with no requirement for diagnosis.
This project has been developed after Hounslow noted recurring themes from parents of SEND children that they do not feel embedded in and supported by local communities. Many parents do not know other families with children with SEND, and feel that having early support from professionals, which connects them with similar families, would prevent escalation of their child’s behaviours further down the line.
Youth & Family Service – Will be delivered by Centre for ADHD & Autism Support from April 2024
This new service aims to improve the understanding of ASD/ADHD across our community – not only amongst young people themselves, but also amongst school staff, parents, and families.
It will offer an early intervention service, and aim to prevent escalation into more intensive services, such as Tier 2 and 3 CAMHS, and ultimately into tier 4 admission or specialist education placements.
It will remove the requirement for CYP to have a diagnosis to access the service, as this project will enable young people on the waiting list for diagnosis to ‘wait well’, by ensuring that they do not need a diagnosis to access support.
This will be a first step in adjusting expectations of a diagnosis being the only way to receive support and may even reduce the number of young people seeking a diagnosis of ASD or ADHD.
This project will include the employment of two part-time staff members, who will work together to provide peer support, and run courses.
To understand the full list of Children Mental health pathways and services available in Hounslow please visit -