Local Authority Commissioning
We work in partnership with a number of local authorities around the UK to provide our evidence based Skills for Life social and emotional learning programmes to schools in their region and to support children with SEND as part of their Local Offer. The teams we work with include Educational Psychology, Virtual Schools and Mental Health Support Teams
From 2018-2022 we were commissioned by Oldham Council’s Mental Health in Education Team to provide teacher training, programme resources and ongoing support to over seventy schools in delivering Skills for Life programmes as part of their Whole School Approach to Emotional Health and Mental Wellbeing. Read more about this project.
Chrissy Orson, Mental Health in Education Advisor, Oldham Council reflects on their work with the Skills for Life programmes:
“We’ve been privileged to work with Partnership for Children over the last four years, rolling out the Skills for Life programmes across our Oldham schools. In fact, we were the first borough to receive training in Passport and this is going down a storm with our year six pupils in particular, preparing them for transition to secondary.
Schools have talked to us about children coming in excited for their Zippy lessons and going home discussing content from Apple’s friends and Passport with their parents. Working with the team at PfC to develop the early years resources means that we’re able to offer a true through school curriculum for our primary settings, building on the skills children learn to support their mental health from as young as four! The partnership working has been fantastic, particularly the flip to online training and resources in response to the pandemic. Thank you all!
Oldham is a very diverse borough so it’s fantastic for our settings to be using a programme which is inclusive and accessible to all children. Every child should have access to the Skills for Life programme! The skills it teaches are relevant and necessary for all of our young people.”
Since 2014 we have worked with Gloucestershire County Council Educational Psychology Service to train over fifty schools in this area to support pupils’ mental health and wellbeing through the Skills for Life programmes. The team share their experiences of the Skills for Life programmes:
"Teaching students how to manage with situations that they find emotionally challenging has (especially in recent years) become a cornerstone of what we do. Whilst a lot of our work is reactive (i.e., we are involved after an issue has been identified) it is really good to be able to train and upskill staff on the Skills for Life programmes so that they can be proactive in supporting mental health needs." - Matt Baker, Senior Educational Psychologist
If you are a Local authority services interested in working with us to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children within your region, please email liz.bowles@partnershipforchildren.org.uk