Hull Mental Health Support Teams has been recognised at the Hull Live Golden Apple awards for its work to provide mental health and wellbeing support to children, young people, parents and education staff in schools and colleges across Hull.
The new NHS service was awarded the ‘Wellbeing Award’ at this week’s event, which saw education staff, children and young people gather to celebrate the talent, skills and hard work that goes into teaching and providing education in Hull and East Riding.
Hull Mental Health Support Teams is a service delivered in partnership between NHS Hull Clinical Commissioning Group, Hull City Council and Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust. It provides early intervention mental health support for children and young people aged 5 – 18 within schools and colleges across the city. Despite not officially launching until January 2022, the project has already supported eight schools during its first pilot year, and once launched will support 34 education settings in Hull.
Reference was made throughout the event to what a challenging couple of years it has been for staff and students alike, and how critical mental health and wellbeing support has been throughout this period of uncertainty.
A special thank you was made at the event to the eight schools which hosted a placement trainee education mental health practitioner throughout 2021; Biggin Hill Primary, Spring Cottage Primary School, Chiltern Primary School, Endike Primary, Malet Lambert, Winifred Holtby, Newland School for Girls and Sirius Academy West.
David Pullen-Higham, Strategic Lead for Mental Health and Learning Disabilities at NHS Hull CCG said: “The hard work that has gone into developing this service over the past year has been immense and I am so thrilled that the team have been recognised for their efforts. To hear that local schools are already feeling the benefits from this service is amazing.
“The work will continue as we officially launch the service in January 2022 when we will be able to support even more schools and colleges in Hull. My personal thanks go to the team who are developing and delivering this service every day.”
Emma Train-Sullivan, Lead for the Mental Health Support Team Service at Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, said: “As a team we are so privileged to receive this fantastic recognition for the work that we have done over the last 16 months. To be recognised for our innovation, determination, and passion this early in the project is amazing and simply reinforces to us why we do what we do.
“We felt very humbled to be amongst such amazing winners and have come away even more determined to support, empower and learn from local children, young people, and families."
