Children and Young People’s Emotional Wellbeing Support consultation

This is currently known as the Kent Children and Young People’s Counselling Service.

We are proposing to fund a new Therapeutic Support Service rather than a Counselling Service when the current service ends in March 2026.

The new service would still help children and young people aged four to 19 years who need mild to medium support for emotional wellbeing, and the budget would remain the same. However, the way that support is delivered would be different, to help meet the needs of more children and young people, more quickly.

The new service would offer a range of creative and therapeutic activities to help children and young people learn new skills and techniques to express how they are feeling, understand their emotions and build resilience. These activities would be mainly delivered as themed, age-appropriate group sessions. They could include:

• Theatre, drama, culture, music, singing or journalling
• Sport and team building activities
• Play therapy for younger children
• Talking therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT.

We know that some children and young people might find it difficult to join a group and we would still have some one-to-one support available.

Our proposals are subject to feedback from the consultation and no decisions have been made. We would be grateful if schools could please support the process by:

• Making children, young people, parents, carers, families and staff aware of the consultation and sharing our consultation weblink
• Encouraging them to complete the online questionnaire or Word version (available on the webpage or in hard copy on request - details below).
• Encouraging young people to view the Young People’s summary version of the consultation document and questionnaire available on the webpage. An easy read version is also available from the webpage or on request.

If anyone needs any help taking part in the consultation, has a question or needs paper copies of the consultation material, they can:

• Email: phstprogramme@kent.gov.uk
• Telephone: 03000 413 487

For any alternative formats or languages, please email alternativeformats@kent.gov.uk or call 03000 42 15 53 (text relay service number 18001 03000 42 15 53).

These phone numbers go to answer machines and are monitored during office hours.

The Consultation closes on Tuesday 12 November 2024.