Oldham Youth Justice Service and Mind’s wellbeing coaching project
Summary:
Oldham Youth Justice Service and Mind have partnered to provide wellbeing coaching for children identified through the youth justice service assessment as having emotional wellbeing or mental health concerns. The programme is offered to all children, whether they are subject to a prevention, diversion, out of court or post court disposal.
Description:
The project was launched in December 2022 as a pilot with funding from the Community Safety Partnership and is currently funded until July 2025.
Mind provide a full-time mental health coach who works in the multi-agency team at Oldham to offer face to face wellbeing coaching. A Service Level Agreement has been established.
The project aims to:
- Increase access to mental health support
- Support improvement of children’s emotional wellbeing, enabling them to more effectively engage with the service
- Support children to explore reasons for offending and work towards reducing reoffending
This flowchart outlines the process for offering wellbeing coaching and the service has created a leaflet which explains the project to children.
Outcomes:
The project is measured through goal-based outcomes using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scales. Each child completes a short mental wellbeing questionnaire at the start of each session which asks about their feelings. The programme then focuses on areas where the child has given themselves the lowest scores.
79% of children’s goal-based outcomes improved after receiving wellbeing coaching through the project, with 10.5% maintaining and a further 10.5% experiencing a decline. However, this decline was due to their situation changing and their outcomes changing in line with this. Further support is always offered to children who do not experience an improvement.
Contact:
| Name | Kelly Rennie, Operational Manager |
| kellyrennie@positive-steps.org.uk |