Mental health support in schools

Place2Be provides child counselling and mental health support in schools, including primary, secondary, high and all-through schools across England, Scotland and Wales.

Each school has a dedicated Place2Be mental health professional who is integral to the school team.

They work closely with pupils, families and staff to improve emotional wellbeing and provide mental health support for the whole school.

We collect data to measure our impact on mental health in schools, which helps us to review and improve our in-school support.

Read about our statistics and evidence

Place2Be is part of our school family. It is more than an office, a therapy room, and a collection of counsellors. Glyn Ellis – Headteacher, Haslingden Primary School

76%

of pupils with severe difficulties showed an improvement in mental health, according to parents

64%

of children with difficulties exhibited that those difficulties had less impact on their learning. according to teachers.

The counselling and support we offer

Pupils come to Place2Be for lots of different reasons. The most common ones are anxiety, struggling to focus, low self-esteem, mood swings and trouble with their family.

Our in-school support works collectively with pupils, families and school staff to help your school community cope with challenges like these.

Place2Talk – pupils book appointments with a Place2Be counsellor to talk about problems and worries
One-to-one counselling – weekly counselling using talking, creative work, and play to support pupils who are struggling
Group work – therapeutic groups exploring issues like friendship, self-esteem, transition and bullying
Family Practitioner – access to a Family Practitioner to provide dedicated advice and support for parents and carers in primary schools
Guidance, training and safeguarding advice for staff – our mental health professionals share their expertise on issues such as managing and understanding behaviour, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Additional Support Needs (ASN), safeguarding and coping with staff stress.

Read about how we provide support

Counsellor with girl talking in school

Helping you understand the world of mental health

Place2Be helps schools to understand the world of mental health. We signpost other organisations and help schools refer pupils to specialist support like Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) where needed.

Measuring pupils' wellbeing in Place2Be partner schools

Place2Be works in partnership with ImpactEd – an organisation committed to supporting schools to evaluate their impact across various outcomes and interpret and learn from findings. This free resource to assess pupils' wellbeing is available for up to 3 years to all Place2Be partner schools.

Find out more about ImpactEd