THE PLACE2BE
Hannah Watkins discovers that everyone needs a safe haven sometimes from this mad world, especially our children
“We have only just scraped the surface of
what it is like to be a young person in
today’s world,” were the words of Dr
Stephen WInkley, Headmaster of Rossall
School at the Boarding Schools’ Association
Conference in May this year as, for our
children, he sees the world we live in as far
more complex, pressurised and scary than
perhaps at any time before.
In 2006, Dr Anthony Seldon, Headmaster of Wellington
College, an Independent secondary school, recognised
this shift and announced plans to introduce a subject
called “well-being” into the curriculum. Since then,
the emotional well-being of children and adolescents
has come into the public conscience.
“SCHOOLS ARE PLACES WHERE YOU LEARN AND IF BY THAT WE MEAN
YOU LEARN HOW TO DEAL WITH YOUR EMOTIONS, YOU LEARN HOW TO
TELL PEOPLE HOW YOU’RE FEELING, YOU LEARN HOW TO SUPPORT EACH
OTHER, WELL, THAT’S THE BEST SCHOOL I CAN THINK OF”
Whilst some continue to have misgivings about the
“systematic teaching of happiness,” calling it selfindulgent,
fluffy or mollycoddling, results of research
into the mental health of children over the last 15
years appear to show cause for concern and a need
for action to be taken to provide our children with the
tools to thrive and succeed:
-
Research commissioned by the NSPCC found
that a third of children are worried about
something and that almost half of them find it
stressful that they have nobody to talk to.
- It is believed that 10% of five to 16 year olds have
a diagnosable mental health disorder, according
to The Office of National Statistics (2005 report).
- 80% of children who have behavioural problems
develop more serious forms of anti-social
behaviour and a staggering 90% of all young
offenders had a mental health problem at the
age of 7 (Office of National Statistics report).
Barry Carpenter, Professor of Early Childhood
Intervention at the University of Worcester predicted
recently, in an interview with the Times Educational
Supplement (the TES), that, with the impact of
events such as the current economic troubles,
the number of pupils with mental health problems
may even double within a decade. He believes that
a fifth of five to 15 year-olds will have an emotional
disorder by 2019.
A third of children are worried about
something and almost half of them find it
stressful that they have nobody to talk to
So, does emotional well-being really impact educational
development and the growth of our children affect
their readiness to face the challenges and
adventures of grown-up life?
Benita Refson, founder and CEO of the charity,
The Place2Be, that works inside schools to improve
the emotional well-being of children, their families
and the whole school community, believes strongly
that it does and the earlier in a child’s life we address
these issues of mental health, the better:
“Today’s children face all kinds of challenges that can
throw them off course. Unless they are given the means
to cope, their feelings of sadness, fear and anger
can easily spill over in the classroom – and in society.
We know as adults that when we are confused, we
can’t think clearly, our mind doesn’t work healthily.
Children are affected by what is happening around
them but they cannot articulate it so they translate it
into behaviour. But it’s ok to feel stress and talk about
it. It is a reality and there should no longer be a stigma.”
To the cynics, she says: “I would question whether
addressing your fears and your anxieties is mollycoddling.
It’s not soft, touchy feely stuff. It’s essential.”
The government has started to take note and
acknowledge that the policy of narrow focus on
academic achievement that was inherited from the
80s when secondary school counsellors were made
redundant is no longer viable.
Bereavement, family breakdown,
domestic violence, trauma and bullying;
these are the kind of problems primary
school children have to contend with,
day after day
Initiatives such as Every Child Matters, Extended
Schools, Healthy Schools and Social and Emotional
Aspects of Learning are gradually being put in place.
For example, the Every Child Matters framework
aims to promote 5 essentials: be healthy, be safe,
enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and
achieve economic well-being. The National Institute
of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) also issued
a report in 2008 on the promotion of children’s social
and emotional well-being in primary education which
advocates the use of school-based approaches.
But the real coalface work of putting this into
practice on a nationwide scale is being carried out
by charities like ThePlace2Be, an organisation from
which all sectors can learn. The charity was
established in 1994 by Benita Refson, in response to
her increasing concern about the extent and depth
of emotional and behavioural difficulties displayed in
classrooms and playgrounds. After volunteering in
social work in her early career, her life took her down
a different path, but once her children had grown up
she trained to be a counsellor, working initially with
adolescents. It was here that she sensed that the
adolescents’ issues often stemmed from early
childhood and the thought kept going through her
mind: “If only I could have reached them earlier.”
“Bereavement, family breakdown, domestic violence,
trauma and bullying; these are the kind of problems
primary school children have to contend with, day
after day. When children show difficult or challenging
behaviour it is often the sign of a deeper problem.
Day in, day out, teachers meet children who are
angry, sad, anxious, violent, or unruly; children who
can soon end up in far worse trouble. As a child’s
formative years have a huge impact on their longterm
development and prospects. The Place2Be
works inside schools to provide emotional support
and nurture unhappy troubled children. By giving
children the chance to explore their problems
through talking, creative work, and play, we enable
them to cope now and make better-informed
decisions about their lives and help prevent more
serious mental health and behavioural problems
in later life.”
The Place2Be model
One of The Place2Be’s missions is to provide
therapeutic and emotional support to children in
school which subsequently makes it easier for
children to concentrate and learn. The Place2Be is
an integral part of the school and their holistic
approach allows the counsellors and the school to
focus together on ‘the whole child’. The counsellors
are visible and available to talk to kids, parents and
listen to teachers. For teachers this visibility helps
with their support and engagement with the service.
For the parents, it gives them a link into the school.
A School Project Manager is assigned to each
school to oversee the volunteer counsellors and
work alongside the teachers, taking referrals and
evaluating the children through nationally validated
screening questionnaires.
Individual counselling takes place in a special
Place2Be room within the school and lasts for
between one school term and one school year. The
Place2Be room is well thought out with materials,
puppets, playdough, paints, tools, sandpits but most
importantly it is a calm, safe place.
In practice, the idea is to provide a room with
materials which the children can play with and
express themselves through without being required
to do anything, in the context of a safe relationship.
The counsellors may often sit and watch to see what
themes keep arising in the play to understand what
the child is grappling with. They listen without putting
their own views onto the child to try to help them
make sense of their feelings.
The children feel that someone is there
for them and that they are ‘of value’
The young children don’t often talk about why they
are there but through playing they often show what
is troubling them. For example, they will use dolls to
re-enact what they want to say to their parents or to
replay a scene that they may have experienced at
home: “Children choose to use these tools to make
sense of the world” says Peter Wilson, a child
psychotherapist since the 1970s, who founded and
directed the Young Minds charity for 14 years raising
the awareness of mental health in children, and who
now works as The Place2Be’s Clinical Advisor.
“Clinical,” he says, “has a medical ring about it and
comes from an original meaning ‘by the bedside’. In
The Place2Be, the clinical ethos is indeed to work
alongside the child - by and on the side of the child.
We give children up to an hour a week to be
themselves, without being required to perform or
achieve. This is a fundamental idea and the most
important is the contract between counsellor and
child – a built relationship of trust.” For this
reason, the session will always be at the same
time, in the same place and with the same
counsellor. Adds Benita Refson: “The children
have 60 minutes of a level of attention that they
don’t get elsewhere. They feel that someone is
there for them and that they are ‘of value’. It
enables young children to trust adults and later in life
know that it’s ok to ask for help. That relationship
makes a big difference.”
The Place2Talk
The Place2Talk is a lunchtime drop-in service
at Place2Be schools, where children can
book short individual or group sessions. In
the 2006/07 academic year over 37,000
visits were made to The Place2Talk. This is
extremely popular as it enables children to
explore a wide range of school and homebased
concerns like difficult peer
relationships, managing feelings, coping
with bereavement, bullying, complex family
relationships, parental separation, exam
worries and managing disappointment.
Peter Wilson notes that these are: “more
structured, solution focused, trying to find
a rational way through an issue.” Said one child of
the drop-in session: “Sometimes if you keep your
feelings bottled up you want to shout at someone but
this is a way of letting your feelings out about how
you feel and why.”
A Place for Parents
A Place for Parents supports parents and carers of
children who have been referred to or are accessing
The Place2Be’s support. Studies have revealed that
children of parents who have mental health problems
may find their own emotional development negatively
effected. For this reason, support is offered to parents
as part of the support for the ‘whole child’. Matthew
Audley, the Parenting Development Manager explains:
“Practical skills are taught, as are confidence,
understanding of boundaries and parenting skills.
Usually the mothers come to the sessions although out
of every 15 parents who come one or two will be men.”
The Place2Be Counsellor Training
The Place2Be provides three main types of training:
internal training for Place2Be clinical staff, external
training for school-based staff and a series of
professional qualifications for people who wish to work
therapeutically with primary school-aged children. These
qualifications are available at Foundation, Diploma
and Masters levels and are provided by practioners.
Results?
The charity has a highly developed research and
evaluation strategy headed by a committee of
academics and policy advisers. The most recent
data show that in the year 2006/07, almost two
thirds (62%) of children who attended The Place2Be
sessions showed improvements including enhanced
self-esteem, better communication skills and ability
to develop stronger relationships.
When asked about the benefit of the service to the
children in their school, 67% of school staff members
said that they were aware of noticeable benefits within
individual children and/or their whole class, and
three-quarters (75%) said that they were aware of
noticeable benefits to the whole-school environment.
Simon Marsh, former Head of Ropery Walk Primary
School in County Durham, where The Place2Be is
an integral part of the school, sums it up:
“Schools are places where you learn and if by that
we mean you learn how to deal with your emotions,
you learn how to tell people how you’re feeling, you
learn how to ask for help and you learn how to
support each other, well, that’s the best school I can
think of because if you can do that, the lessons
come naturally and learning in an academic sense
naturally follows. It is that simple to me. Unless you
can establish the right environment for learning,
learning is never going to really be effective.”
10% of five to 16 year olds have a
diagnosable mental health disorder
For more information on The Place2Be contact:
www.theplace2be.org.uk