Impact Report 2020
“ I don’t want to upset Mummy and Daddy, but I sometimes worry about things.” Seven-year-old boy
“ I can honestly say Place2Be has been a tower of strength and support to children.” Teacher
“ You’re the only person that has been there for me throughout all of this. The only person I speak to some weeks. It’s been really helpful because I can talk to you and I trust you, as I know you’re there for all of us.” Mum of four children
Contents Our vision
2
Our reach and impact
4
Support through the pandemic
6
Building awareness, skills and knowledge in schools
8
Building the children and young people’s mental health workforce
10
Highlights & commitments
12
Income & expenditure
14
A huge thank you
16
Place2Be Impact Report 2020 1
Our vision Place2Be believes no child should face mental health problems alone. We work in close partnership with school communities, providing the therapeutic support services, expert training and the resources they need to improve the emotional wellbeing of children, young people, parents and teachers. Our flexible model takes a ‘whole school’ approach by supporting not only pupils, but their families, and school staff as well. Place2Be’s vision is for all schools in the UK to have access to high quality, effective, evidence-based mental health support.
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In the past year... We worked directly with 700 schools through our in-school support or training, reaching a school community of 380,691 children and young people. We developed resources to support schools and communities through the pandemic, which were viewed or downloaded over 85,000 times.
“ The events of 2020 have been exceptionally challenging for many families, but they have also highlighted the need for Place2Be in an unprecedented way. In particular, they have also fostered a greater sense of creativity and flexibility as we have rapidly adapted how we deliver our services. Schools are the hearts of our communities, and are essential partners in our efforts to reach some of our most vulnerable children and families in the UK.” Catherine Roche, Chief Executive, Place2Be
Our work focuses on four areas:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Supporting children and young people’s mental health through therapeutic work in schools
Building an expert workforce in the field of children and young people’s mental health
Building awareness, skills and knowledge in school communities
Innovating, gathering evidence to drive improvements in the national system
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Our reach and impact Children and young people
Parents and carers
Effective support at an early stage not only helps children and young people cope with challenging life circumstances, but can also prevent problems from escalating and becoming more serious in adolescence and adulthood.
We continued to provide support for parents and carers in our partner schools. In the academic year 2019–20, we delivered 29,869 support sessions for parents and carers (either face-to-face or by phone), and supported 589 parents through specialist parent counselling sessions.
Place2Be’s own data demonstrates that our one-to-one support not only improves children and young people’s wellbeing, but that they continue to benefit from these improvements one year later. Place2Be’s support can also help children to get the most from their education. When we compared the pupils receiving our one-to-one
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support with pupils who had the same level of academic attainment and background characteristics, we found that they were able to keep pace with their peers academically, and the possible negative impact of their mental health difficulties appears to have been mitigated. For children and young people who had recently experienced fixed term exclusions, three quarters (74%) had fewer fixed term exclusions while they had counselling. In the past academic year, over 33,000 children and young people accessed a support service from Place2Be (either faceto-face or by phone).
In 2020, we began a research project to look at how a digital service could best support parents and carers of primary school age children who display more challenging behaviours. This development phase is continuing into 2020–21.
Our frontline work reaches some of the most vulnerable in our society. Of those who accessed Place2Be’s one-to-one weekly support:
47% received free school meals.
38% had four or more Adverse Childhood Experiences
27% were involved with social care.
8% were the subject of a child protection plan.
such as abuse, domestic violence or loss of a parent.
After children have had Place2Be counselling, our results show that:
74% had fewer fixed term exclusions while they had counselling.
75% find it easier to have & keep friends.
61% of children’s difficulties had less impact on their learning.
81% of those with severe difficulties show an improvement in mental health.
Support through the pandemic The mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on many children, young people and their families is evident across the UK. According to our frontline staff, 85% of the young people we support in secondary schools have been negatively affected by the pandemic. While schools were closed, we adapted the ways we provide support. Our teams rapidly moved to a phone-based service to continue providing high-quality mental health support for children, families and school staff. We also partnered with leading digital providers to provide safe ways for young people to access support, including via an app and online community.
“ During lockdown and throughout the school summer holidays, Place2Be continued to support our children and families. This ongoing support certainly enabled very vulnerable children and families to cope far better than we could have hoped for otherwise. You can have an army of the best teachers in the world, but if the psychological barriers to learning are not addressed, a child isn’t going to learn, or use that learning, as effectively as they could.” Jo Geary, Headteacher, Leeds
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During lockdown, we: • Provided support for families remotely, delivering almost 35,000 phone sessions to children, young people, families and school staff. • Piloted our online Mental Health Champions – Foundation programme with 3,300 teachers and allied professionals. • Provided resources to support schools and communities, viewed or downloaded over 85,000 times.
• Partnered with leading providers to offer digital support tools for young people, including an app to help reduce anxiety and access to an online community with wellbeing resources and counselling. We continue to offer these tools to the young people we work with, giving them greater choice and flexibility.
Caleb’s story Eight-year-old Caleb’s parents are both nurses. Although his parents tried their best to protect him from the emotional impact of the virus, he was still very worried about whether they’d come home from work, and if they’d be safe. We provided one-to-one support sessions during lockdown, and later he asked if he could bring his friends with him for a ‘Place2Talk’ session, so that he could help them understand what was going on for him.
Building awareness, skills and knowledge in schools Our suite of Mental Health Champions programmes equip school leaders and teachers with the skills, knowledge and confidence to create mentally-healthy learning environments. Our School Leader programme supports participants to identify their school’s priorities and develop strategic approaches to addressing those needs. Our Class Teacher programme empowers teachers and school staff to support pupils’ wellbeing, approach behavioural issues with greater understanding and manage personal stress to work more effectively.
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In the year to 31 March 2020:
436 staff, across 241 schools, took part in our School Leader programme.
413 teachers, across 139 schools, completed our Class Teacher programme.
Mental Health Champions — Foundation programme In April 2020, we launched the pilot of our first online-only training programme for teachers and school staff. The five-week Mental Health Champions – Foundation programme enhances professionals’ understanding of children’s mental health and introduces approaches that foster positive wellbeing in schools and communities. Autumn 2020 Roll-Out In autumn 2020, we began the roll-out of the Mental Health Champions – Foundation programme to up to 50,000 teachers and school staff – our aim is to reach 10% of all UK teachers.
Of those who took part in the pilot of our Mental Health Champions – Foundation programme:
93% said they have changed their actions, behaviour or attitude in the classroom as a result of something that they learned on the course. “ I’d definitely recommend the Place2Be training – most of the staff in our school have already signed up and I’ve also already told my sister who is a deputy head to sign up too.” Claire Curtis, Assistant Head and SENDCO, Oldham
Place2Be Impact Report 2020 9
Building the children & young people’s mental health workforce Place2Be provides professional qualifications and placements for those pursuing a career or building their skills in child counselling. It is part of our mission to help develop a high calibre workforce of mental health professionals across the UK, to ensure children and young people can access the support they need. In the year to 31 March 2020:
418 people completed a qualifying course through Place2Be (Level 2 through to Masters).
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1,039 people attended a ‘Taster Day’ session.
“ Place2Be offers high-quality ongoing training, and support is always available. The supervision you have with your School Project Manager straight after your sessions is extremely helpful.” Amy, Counsellor on Placement
“ The support and training I received was really valuable and put me at ease.” Susanne, former Counsellor on Placement
From March 2020 we were able to successfully manage the transition to online delivery, via Zoom, of the academic elements of all of our courses. We’ve now ‘future-proofed’ our training sessions so that we can return to this model when needed. We were able to continue our Post Graduate Diploma without interruption and all second-year students are on target to successfully graduate. All our first-year students are returning to complete their second year this September.
1450 individuals took up counselling placements with Place2Be in the 2019–20 academic year, gaining vital experience of working with children and young people in a safe therapeutic setting. When schools closed in March, our placements were unavoidably paused until the autumn. We continued to support our Counsellors on Placement through access to training opportunities and resources.
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Highlights & commitments 2019–2020 highlights: • October 2019: Marked 10 years of Place2Be in Wales with an event attended by Welsh Education Minister, Kirsty Williams. • November 2019: Awarded ‘Highly Commended’ in the Mental Health Provider of the Year category in the prestigious Health Service Journal Awards 2019. • February 2020: Held our biggest ever Children’s Mental Health Week on the theme of ‘Find Your Brave’ – our campaign website received 238,000 unique visitors.
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• February 2020: Announced 25 Wolfson Place2Be Bursaries to encourage people from under-represented groups in the counselling profession, or those who require financial support, to train with Place2Be. • March 2020: Celebrated our 25th anniversary with a gala dinner at Buckingham Palace, hosted by our Royal Patron, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge. • April 2020: Launched pilot of our online Mental Health Champions – Foundation programme to 3,300 school staff. Roll-out to 50,000 UK teachers and school staff from Autumn 2020.
• March – July 2020: Provided continuous high quality support to over 4,000 children, their families and teachers through almost 35,000 telephone support sessions. • July 2020: Published a peerreviewed research paper on why primary age children are referred to counselling in the Counselling and Psychotherapy Research Journal of the BACP.
Our commitments: Diversity and Inclusion In Autumn 2020, we published our commitment to Diversity and Inclusion through our Strategy and Action Plan. This included: • Ensuring our direct work in schools is accessible and delivers impact to the full school community.
• Promoting the value of a diverse workforce and ensuring that our training programmes are accessible to all. • Creating an inclusive workplace to attract, retain and develop a talented team from all backgrounds and cultures.
Green Charter In February 2020, we published Place2Be’s Green Charter – committing to reducing Place2Be’s environmental impact by April 2021 through actions including reducing London office energy emissions by 10% and reducing CO2 emissions through travel by 10%.
By 2025 we will: • Reach up to 10% of UK schools, through a combination of direct services, training of school staff and leaders, and building a professional mental health workforce to work with children and young people. • Double our reach into schools through our frontline practice.
• Continue to build schools’ knowledge to enable the delivery of a whole school approach to mental health, building mentally healthy schools. • Continue developing a skilled children and young people’s mental health workforce through our clinical placements and professional qualifications pathways.
• Continue to build our reputation as voluntary sector leaders in research in children and young people’s mental health by disseminating evidence of impact to a wider audience, and by influencing health and education policy.
Place2Be Impact Report 2020 13
Income & expenditure Our income Thanks to your support, we raised £23 million last year to help improve children’s mental health in the UK. Our diverse fundraising portfolio encompasses philanthropy, corporate and trust donors, events, individual supporters and grants. This has been an exceptional year thanks to the unprecedented £5m gift from the Mohn Westlake Foundation as an investment in our infrastructure and strategic development over a multi-year period. 14 Place2Be Impact Report 2020
Income by type for the year ending 31 March 2020 Voluntary £12,953,000 School £7,638,000 Government £1,572,000 Training £1,003,000 Investment £18,000 TOTAL £23,184,000
Our expenditure We’ve worked hard to ensure that every penny raised over the course of the past year has been used to maximum effect. On the right is a snapshot of our expenditure across the year, but you can see the full breakdown in our Annual Report and Accounts for the year ending 31 March 2020.
Analysis of activities for the year ending 31 March 2020 Mental health services & support £14,577,000 Training £2,162,000 Raising funds £972,000 Raising awareness & promoting understanding £664,000 TOTAL £18,375,000
Place2Be Impact Report 2020 15
A huge thank you We are grateful to the following organisations and individuals who, among other generous benefactors, have given us financial and other support during the past year:
Clore Duffield Foundation
Aatif Hassan
Clyde & Co
Heads Up Challenge Group
CME Group
Henry Oldfield Trust
James Cochrane
Adrienne Herrmann
Coutts
Michael and Siân Hill
Hadyn and Joanna Cunningham
Andrew and Karen Howes
Deloitte
Incisive Media
Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropy
Edinburgh City Council
J Leon Group
Allen and Overy
Elstree School
The John Horseman Trust
AOK Trust
Euromonitor International
John Laing Charitable Trust
Mac and Casey Armstrong
Fidelity UK Foundation
Poppy and Sean Arnold
Duncan Ford
The Joyce and Norman Freed Charitable Trust
Aspect Capital
Mr and Mrs P Gabriel
Bank of America
Robyn and Eldad Gal
Archer and Ashlee Bishop
The Gannochy Trust
BlackRock
Erich and Sarah Gerth
The BMR Foundation
Magoo and Cills Giles
Jo Bradshaw
Michael and Carolyn Goldhill
The Brook Trust
Daniel and Corinne Goldman
Ryan Marie and Craig Brooks
Courtney Granville and Daniel Rosenthal
Jim and Andrea Burns Ken and Debra Caplan Citi e for education City Bridge Trust
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A private family foundation managed by Greenwood Place
KLC School of Design Knightsbridge School The Law Family Charitable Foundation Katie and Tim Levene The Lord Mayor’s Appeal Ludgrove School Simon Mackenzie Smith Mapfre MariaMarina Foundation Marshall Wace
The Haber Charitable Trust
The Masonic Charitable Foundation
Jed and Allison Hart
The Mohn Westlake Foundation
“ I think I’m more confident now and I like to stand up in front of everyone in class and read my answer. I didn’t like doing that before.” Ten-year-old girl
Morgan Stanley
Joseph and Angela Spence
North Carrick Community Benefit Company
St James’s Place Foundation
Nuveen Real Estate Pears Foundation People’s Postcode Lottery
Swiss Re UK&I The Syncona Foundation Nick Thomas
Perella Weinberg Partners
The Thompson Family Charitable Trust
The Peter Cundill Foundation
The Tomoro Foundation
Pinsent Masons
UBS
PJT Partners
Robert and Felicity Waley-Cohen
The Rigby Foundation
White & Case LLP
Victoria and Tim Robinson
The White Company
Michelle and Pete Rosenbauer
Zurich Community Trust
Rachel and John Rosenberg Royal Foundation William Russell The Sam West Foundation Scottish Government – Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention Fund Shears Foundation Gordon and Jenny Singer
We wish to offer special acknowledgement to those who gave us unrestricted and core cost funding, which provides security and flexibility for growth and development. We are particularly grateful to the Pears Foundation, People’s Postcode Lottery, and the Peter Cundill Foundation who gave significant unrestricted funding. We would also like to thank all of the friends of Place2Be, who have given personally, attended our fundraising events, or taken on a challenge for Place2Be, as well as their wonderful sponsors.
sketch Sobell Foundation SoulCycle
Design by: pslondon
“ Place2Be helped me talk about my family member who died, and I don’t feel as sad as I poured my worries out. I can even sleep in the dark by myself now without a light. I used to get really scared but I don’t now.” Eight-year-old girl
Contact us If you are interested in finding out more about Place2Be, please get in touch:
0207 923 5500 enquiries@place2be.org.uk place2be.org.uk
Follow us @Place2Be Place2Be Place2Be @_Place2Be
Registered Charity in England and Wales (1040756) and in Scotland (SC038649) Registered Company in England and Wales (02876150) Principal and registered office: 175 St. John Street, London, EC1V 4LW