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Wellbeing and Emotional Support Teams in Schools (WEST)

  • We work in schools and colleges to help children and young people aged 5 to 18 who may be feeling worried, anxious or low.

About our service

We are the Wellbeing and Emotional Support Teams (WEST). We work in schools and colleges to help children and young people aged 5 to 18 who may be feeling worried, anxious or low.

Our job is to support you early, before things feel too big or too hard to manage, and to make sure you get the right help as soon as possible.

How we support you

We offer short‑term support, usually over a few weeks or months. You might meet with a wellbeing practitioner or a senior practitioner, or sometimes another member of our team. We all work together to help you feel better.

We often use something called CBT, which is a type of talking therapy. It helps you understand your thoughts and feelings, and teaches you new ways to cope when you’re finding things difficult.

CBT can help if you have feelings such as:

  • worries that won’t go away
  • feeling sad or fed up
  • feeling nervous or scared
  • finding it hard to relax
  • struggling with friendships or school worries

We can meet with you in person at school or online. Most of the time we meet one‑to‑one, but we can also run group sessions, and sometimes your family might join if that would help you.

If you need more support than our team can give, we will help you find another service that can give you the right help.

Important to know  

We are an early help service, which means we support you before things get too big or overwhelming. But we cannot give urgent or crisis help.

If you are in crisis or feel unsafe, you need to get urgent support. Find out who to contact here: Urgent help and support in an emergency | Children, Young People and Families

Our work in schools and colleges

We work many schools and colleges. These include primary, middle, and secondary schools, sixth forms and colleges.  Our staff sometimes lead assemblies and give talks about wellbeing and resilience. We support schools with mental health work too.

We help schools and colleagues:

  • Spot needs early
  • Share the right advice
  • Use proven support

We also run online workshops for parents. Your school or college can tell you more if you would like to know about these.

How to access the service

If you need support from our team, talk to your school’s Mental Health Lead. You can also ask any member of school staff to help you make a referral.

Parents and carers can also refer their child. They should speak to the school’s Mental Health Lead to find out how to do this.

Sixth form and college self-referral  

If you are in Year 12 or Year 13 and go to one of the schools or colleges we work with, you can refer yourself. You can do this privately by filling in the form below. If you need help completing it, speak to your Mental Health Lead.

How we manage your information

Keeping information private is very important to our teams. We only share information to keep you or a loved one safe.

Find out more using the links below: