HeadStart

Collating key learning and best practice from across the six HeadStart partnerships.

Started in 2016, HeadStart is a six-year, £67.4 million National Lottery funded programme set up by The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK. HeadStart aims to explore and test new ways to improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged 10 to 16 and prevent serious mental health issues from developing.

To do this, six local authority-led HeadStart partnerships are working with local young people, schools, families, charities, community and public services to design and try out new interventions that will make a difference to young people’s mental health, wellbeing and resilience.

The HeadStart partnerships are in the following locations in England: Blackpool; Cornwall; Hull; Kent; Newham; Wolverhampton.

As part of the funding, £8.7million was awarded for the final year to target support for marginalised young people to access the help they need, in light of increased demand for mental health and wellbeing support throughout the Covid-19 crisis.

The partnerships are united in their focus on improving resilience, preventing emerging mental health problems and reducing the need for specialist services. They approach these aims in diverse and creative ways, at both universal and targeted levels. These include:

• whole-school approaches
• parenting support programmes
• workforce development
• digital engagement
• community and voluntary groups
• peer mentoring
• whole town/city and organisational approaches.

Together, these have enabled the partnerships to respond to the challenges of the Covid-19 lockdowns and provide subsequent support to an emotional wellbeing agenda locally around the reopening of schools.

This resource hub is a library for the celebration, exploration and sharing of the partnerships’ practices. It aims to disseminate key learning by themes most relevant for local areas who may be considering or implementing similar approaches.