What is it?
- Supports children, young people & their families.
- Offers guided self-help for mild mental health needs.
- Provides training for schools on various topics.
- Referrals can be made via a link person in school.
Here's more detail
Service Information
Islington’s School Wellbeing Service (SWS) supports children, young people, and their families experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties. The SWS works with all mainstream schools in Islington to help children and young people get early help to stop difficulties from getting worse. We also promote emotional wellbeing and resilience at school.
We have two teams that cover the north and south of the borough. The teams are based centrally in The Laycock Centre but most of the work takes place in schools.
The teams support young people and families with:
- Fear and worries about school, family or friends
- Feeling sad and low
- Difficulties with friendships
- Difficulties following rules and requests
Voice quote
It felt very comfortable and a good thing to keep in mind weekly when things became difficult. Really found it helpful and had a lot of improvement.
Parent who attended guided self-help sessions
SWS Recommended Resources
- What will being seen involve?
If you or a young person you know would like support, speak to someone at school who can talk to the SWS team to see if they can help.
If the SWS can help, someone will be in touch to find out more and tell you about what support they can offer. We work with parents of primary aged children and directly with young people at secondary school. We offer around eight sessions of 1:1 support, using Guided Self-Help based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy principles. This would mean meeting weekly with your SWS practitioner at school and working through things together to understand and learn strategies for managing the difficulties you are experiencing- this will be explained more by your practitioner!
For primary aged children, we mainly work with parents to enable them to support and manage their child’s anxiety or to help them understand their children’s behaviour and support them to find more appropriate ways to express how they are feeling. We also offer whole class and small group work for primary aged children as well as workshops and groups for parents/ carers. Topics include supporting your child’s anxiety, positive parenting strategies, transition and supporting your child to regulate their emotions.
In secondary schools, we mainly work directly with children and young people to support them to manage feelings of anxiety or low mood, through individual and group work.
The team also offers a range of workshops and training for school staff. Topics include: Supporting anxious pupils, Staff Wellbeing and Emotion Based School Avoidance.
- Who will children, young people and their families work with?
The SWS is a friendly team made up of
clinical andeducational psychologists ,CAMHS clinicians andSchool Wellbeing Practitioners (SWPs). Each school has their own SWP – please say hello if you see us around your school! - Referral information
The SWS has a link person in every school who will be able to talk to us about anyone who might need help from our service. If you would like help from the SWS please speak to your school who can complete a referral form for our service.
- SWS recommended resources
The SWS YouTube channel has videos for primary and secondary school pupils, as well as parents / carers and staff, on topics including anxiety and managing exam stress, introduction to the School Wellbeing Service and emotional based school avoidance.
SWS resources for secondary young people with information and top tips on the following topics:
- A video describing the Islington School Wellbeing Service
Information in other languages
Please find our parent and carer leaflet translated into four different languages below.
Contact info
Contact information
The SWS is based at The Laycock Centre. We mostly work in schools but can also work at The Northern Health Centre or virtually.
For more information, please see the leaflets below.
Recommended by Islington School Wellbeing Service (SWS)
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