SF speeding access to children and young people's mental health services
A conversation with staff from Learning Space, Surrey, UK
May 5, 2024
Gill North, Sarah Charlton, Natasha Adams & introduced by Luke Goldie-McSorley
Introduced by Luke Goldie-McSorley
Learning Space, a service that is part of the Surrey (UK) Mindworks Alliance Partnership, is a mental health charity working across Surrey to improve the emotional wellbeing of children aged 5 – 18 years old. Learning Space has centres in Guildford, Redhill and Tadworth and adopts a strengths-based, solution-focused approach to meet the needs and interests of children, young people and families.
In a time when children and young people’s well-being is vitally important and still tragically under-supported and underfunded, I find myself as a practitioner who has worked directly with children and adolescents my whole career, inspired and thankful for services like Learning Space. Especially the innovative projects they embark on to make every extra difference they can to the experience and well-being of young people.
My inspiration is further fuelled by their latest project, which promotes and privileges the use of an approach very close to my heart, Solution Focus, in a truly innovative and accessible way.
I have spoken regularly about my view on using the accessibility and potency of the solution-focused methodology in moments others might not expect. This is exactly what Learning Space has done in their latest project, proving the endless possibility of the Solution Focus approach and co-production with clients.
Learning Space has designed and used a triaging system that begins to impact positively on children, young people and their families even before they have accessed the service that they hope will fit just right for them. It has received feedback from families like “We have increased optimism” and “We feel heard”. Families are a part of the design of what might lead to achieving their best hopes, truly honouring their expertise in their own life/children.
Imagine this: you arrive at the entrance to the hypothetical library of available services, and before you’ve finished looking through the map, you already begin to feel ever so slightly better, heard, more hopeful and more connected to your power and strengths.
Well, you need not imagine. Begin by listening more to Learning Space and how they bring humanity, the solution-focused approach, families’ voices, community and change work to triage and service access.
It is no surprise to me to read of the outcomes of this pilot, and I will watch with interest to see their successes grow, because, as they’ve shown, even in the earliest moments of service access, hope can be ignited.
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Gill North
SFiO Contributor
Gill is the manager of Learning Space , a children and young people’s mental health charity based in Surrey, England. She is a trained secondary school teacher with a background in special educational needs. She achieved her MA in Emotional Factors in Learning and Teaching at the Tavistock and Portman Clinic. She is one of the founding members of the Learning Space team and has been using solution-focused approaches to support children, young people and families since the beginning of the charity in 1997.
Sarah Charlton
SFiO Contributor
Sarah is Senior Mentor Children and Young People, of Learning Space, a children and young people’s mental health charity based in Surrey, England. Sarah is an experienced Parent Coach who shares Listening and Connection tools to support great relationships. A qualified youth worker and senior mentor with Learning Space, Sarah has worked with children, young people and parents for ten years in various settings, including secondary schools and the private sector. She has been learning about and using SF for the past 6 years and is especially keen to develop the use of SF tools with parents and carers to support families.
Natasha Adams
SFiO Contributor
Natasha is the Deputy Manager and Community Wellbeing Lead for Learning Space, a children and young people’s mental health charity based in Surrey, England. She has twenty years of experience in youth and community work and completed her MA in Youth and Community Studies in 2016. She completed her advanced certificate in SF with BRIEF in 2022 and was recently accredited by the UKASFP as an accredited SF practitioner. Natasha is passionate about bringing together SF and participation to co-produce innovative early help and mental health services, putting the child’s voice, young person and family at the centre.
Luke Goldie-McSorley
SFiO InterAction Contributor
Luke Goldie-McSorley is a passionate and proud Social Worker in the DBIT service in Essex Children’s Social care. Nearing 10 years as a Social Worker working in Solution Focused (SF) Edge of care & Emotional wellbeing work, with some of the most high risk, strained, oppressed, unsafe and challenging families and circumstances.