The Surrey Wellbeing Partnership
The High Sheriff and his wife had the pleasure of meeting Dr Ann Kenney the Independent Chair of the Surrey Wellbeing Partnership (SWP) and Misty Bower who is the CEO of the Matrix Trust, one of the members of SWP. The latter is a Christian charity that works across the Guildford Borough helping vulnerable young people. It nurtures, inspires, connects and empowers the young by building up their confidence. It also runs the Hideaway Youth Café in Eastgate Gardens, Guildford, which is where the meeting took place on Friday 10th June.
The SWP is a charity and a company registered by guarantee and it is a joint venture of local and national charities of different sizes whose common aim is to work with children and young people in the community to improve their wellbeing and mental health. It started up in 2020 and its purpose is to combine the reach, strengths and experience of the charity sector in Surrey, in order to participate collaboratively in larger contracts. The focus of the partnership is on early intervention and preventative support so as to avoid children, young persons and families getting into a crisis situation. There are a wide range of services within the partnership, one example of which is that there is an Early Intervention Coordinator allocated for each of the school clusters across Surrey, aiming to provide a support and co-ordinating role for emotional wellbeing and mental health in schools.
SWP partners are: Barnardo’s, east to west, The EIKON Charity, Emerge Advocacy, Learning Space, Leatherhead Youth Project, Matrix, The National Autistic Society, Peer Productions, Relate West Surrey, Step by Step, Surrey Care Trust and YMCA East Surrey.
Currently, SWP are part of Mindworks Surrey – a new alliance of the NHS (Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust)) and voluntary sector organisations working together across the county to provide a comprehensive emotional well-being and mental health family-centred service for children and young people. This operates a dedicated crisis line as well as a dedicated neurodevelopmental support line open to parents and carers of children with additional needs. Together the alliance aims to ensure there is “No wrong door” to access support and “No one left behind” in Surrey for emotional wellbeing and mental health.
Mindworks Surrey is funded by SCC and local CCGs and has the benefit of a long-term contract over 7 years to establish this new way of working and range of services. This will allow partners to embed all the initiatives, especially early intervention offers, and see the impact they make over time.
The new approach for service delivery is called the THRIVE Framework for System Change. It gives children and young people a central voice in the decisions about their care. It is needs led rather than being based upon a diagnosis.
It is interesting to know that Surrey’s lead in this area has attracted the interest of other county councils who can see the benefits that may follow from such a partnership. The services provided include: activity evenings and days; parent anxiety courses; a mental health drop in youth clubs; volunteer mentoring; youth cafés; community groups and group work and school workshops; school transition coaches; counselling; a parent wellbeing service and schools programmes.
The Guide to the Services offered by the SWP is an excellent publication and it’s clear that SWP and Mindworks will be most effective vehicles for early intervention and the achievement of greater success in helping children and young people in Surrey.
To find out more information, advice and support please got to
www.mindworks-surrey.org
and for information about the SWP Partnership
www.surreywellbeing.org
Crisis Line : 24/7 professional support for mental health please call 0800 915 4644 Out of hours (5pm-11pm) advice for behaviours or difficulties that could be associated with neurodevelopmental need such as autism and ADHD please call 0300 222 5755
