Strengthening collaboration to improve children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing
The Schools Wellbeing Partnership is delighted to announce during this Children’s Mental Health Week, a new partnership with Bukhman Philanthropies, who are investing over £160k over three years to support a national programme strengthening how schools across the UK promote children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.
Based at the National Children’s Bureau, the Schools Wellbeing Partnership brings together more than 300 organisations and schools to champion preventative, evidence-informed whole school approaches to wellbeing. This new partnership will enable the Partnership to grow its national impact at a critical moment for education and public health.
Schools are one of the most influential environments in children’s lives and often the first place mental health difficulties are identified. Yet many schools face rising levels of need alongside limited capacity, fragmented guidance and largely offer only reactive support. This partnership will help contribute to addressing those challenges by strengthening collaboration across education, health and the voluntary sector and supporting schools to embed wellbeing as a whole-school strategic priority.
Over the next three years, the partnership will directly support hundreds of schools and at least 300 school staff through high-quality training, practical guidance and peer learning. Activity will include delivering four national training sessions each year for educators, convening quarterly partnership meetings for over 300 organisations and schools, producing accessible practice guides and policy briefings, and embedding children and young people’s lived experience into training, resources and national policy engagement. The programme will also generate new case studies and skills in the sector to support more consistent, preventative whole-school wellbeing practice across the education system.
Schools are under growing pressure to support children’s wellbeing, often without the joined-up support they need. This partnership strengthens collaboration across the system, helping schools embed evidence-informed, whole-school approaches that support children and young people to thrive.
Daria Bukhman
Co-founder and Chair of Bukhman Philanthropies
This partnership will help us to further unite education, health and community organisations around our shared commitment to children and young people’s wellbeing in schools. By strengthening collaboration and drawing on strong evidence we will be able to better support schools create environments where pupils truly flourish.
Steven Baker OBE
Chair of the Schools Wellbeing Partnership
Supporting children’s wellbeing means strengthening the systems around them. The Schools Wellbeing Partnership connects evidence, practice and lived experience to help wellbeing become a core part of how schools work and we’re delighted to begin this partnership.
Anna Feuchtwang
CEO of the National Children’s Bureau
By supporting the Schools Wellbeing Partnership, Bukhman Philanthropies is investing in national infrastructure that helps schools move beyond short term initiatives towards sustainable, preventative approaches that benefit all children and young people, particularly those most at risk.