My Health, Our Future - understanding children and young people's mental health - the state of Suffolk

Healthwatch Suffolk conducted a large piece of research with local schools to investigate young people's mental health and how services might support and respond.

Over 6,800 responses were recorded from a total of eight schools across the county. The response rate is 79%, which means the results could be generalised to the wider population of children and young people in Suffolk.

There are a set of recommendations in this report.

• The Emotional Wellbeing 2020’s Workforce Development Programme should proactively offer all secondary schools training and development.

• Stakeholders should work collaboratively to provide a systematic approach to upskilling children and young people on issues regarding mental health and wellbeing across secondary schools in Suffolk.

• Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) and Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) should include digital and online safety.

• EWB2020 stakeholders should work collectively to promote children and young people’s voices throughout health and education systems, such as the Health and Wellbeing Board.

• The EWB2020 should increase funding for Tier One support.

• Schools should be engaged on the forthcoming Emotional Wellbeing Hub and, where possible, should receive increased signposting material.

• Healthwatch Suffolk will help My Health, Our Future schools to implement a Mental Health and Wellbeing Roadmap.

There are no follow up actions in this report.