• New model developed in partnership with the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), and partners offers local areas and the Government a tried and tested framework to moving from costly, inconsistent crisis response to prevention, early help, and community-based support.
• Test and Learn evaluation shows the model works and is capable of replication in other areas, with the model set to be rolled out in two other locations in England.
• The model includes making children’s mental health a priority in local areas; strong leadership from the ICB and local authority; putting young people’s voices at the centre; connecting data to identify need; and the expansion of early intervention community services including Mental Health Support Teams and community hubs like Young Futures.

The Centre for Young Lives think tank today (Thursday 29^th January) publishes Growing Up Well: A new place-based model to radically improve children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, setting out a new tested blueprint for local systems to deliver earlier, more effective support for children and young people.

[.download]Download the report[.download]

Over the last decade, diagnosable mental health conditions have risen sharply - one in five children aged 8 to 16 and one in four young adults now meet clinical thresholds. Yet demand continues to outpace capacity, with NHS services reaching only around 40% of those in need. Long waits, fragmented pathways and late intervention are leaving too many young people to deteriorate before help arrives.

The Growing Up Well (GUW) model is a new place based, outcomes-led approach designed to transform children and young people’s mental health by shifting the system from late, crisis driven responses to prevention, early help, and community embedded support. Developed through national research, the Centre for Young Lives’ Future Minds partnership, and an 18-month trailblazer with Humber & North Yorkshire ICB, the model provides a practical blueprint for change.

The model works with Integrated Care Boards as anchor institutions, bringing together health, education, local government, universities, and the voluntary sector to make children and young people’s mental health a joint priority. Partners work together to move the system to early intervention, community support to help young people grow up well.  Support is delivered locally, through schools, community hubs and youth provision as trusted access points, strengthened by connected data, coproduction with young people, and closer integration with specialist services. The model also aligns with the NHS 10Year Plan and its three major shifts - from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. 

It is underpinned by key principles including earlier help and prevention, with investment moving upstream, holistic support, a “no wrong door” approach, so young people get help wherever they first ask, safe, evidence based digital innovation, and youth voice and empowerment at every stage.

The Growing Up Well model is designed to tackle a system that is currently overreactive, fragmented and crisis led, by:

• Rebalancing investment towards prevention and early help, including open access, community-based provision.
• Scaling neighbourhood health and wellbeing hubs (including Young Futures Hubs) for 10–25-year-olds, integrating voluntary and statutory services alongside clinical pathways.
• Strengthening the role of schools and colleges as universal, trusted access points, with Mental Health Support Teams supporting the development of ‘school health’ hubs.
• Building connected data infrastructure, linking health, education and social care to understand need, target resources and evaluate what works.
• Embedding co-production with children, young people and families through clear feedback loops that build trust and relevance.
• Creating cross sector governance and learning networks, aligning leadership and accountability around shared outcomes.
• Expanding school based and community support, with stronger integration between clinical and nonclinical provision.
• Developing neighbourhood level insight, using connected datasets to identify gaps and inequalities earlier.

Growing Up Well puts forward a local blueprint for action based on seven core principles: 

• Put children first: establish ICB Futures Groups to oversee a board level strategy for children and young people’s mental health, embedded in Integrated Care Strategies and Joint Forward Plans.
• Address inequity: rebalance spend so at least 20% supports early intervention, open access and community provision; use population level data to target disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
• Put education and communities at the heart: use Mental Health Support Teams to connect health and education via ‘school health’ hubs and strengthen pathways between mild to moderate and specialist thresholds.
• Adopt place-based approaches: scale neighbourhood mental health and wellbeing hubs (including Young Futures Hubs) for 10–25yearolds, integrating voluntary and statutory support alongside clinical care.
• Join up public services: empower ICBs as anchor institutions to implement a single shared outcomes framework across wellbeing, health, education and care, supported by cross sector governance and learning networks.
• Share information effectively: invest in secure, connected data infrastructure linking health, education and social care - following models such as Connected Bradford and Connected Humber & North Yorkshire - to drive population level planning for children.
• Underpin reforms with evidence and evaluation: embed co-production with children, young people and families as standard; partner with universities to strengthen research, innovation and continuous learning.

The Centre for Young Lives will shortly be asking for expressions of interest to test the model in two more ICB areas over the next two years.

Baroness Anne Longfield, Chair and Founder of the Centre for Young Lives, said:

“The NHS has come a long way over the last decade. Access and earlier intervention have improved support for many children. But at the same time there has been an extraordinary rise in the number of children and young people with mental health problems. 

“Our work over the last 18 months shows what can be achieved when the whole system comes together to prioritise children and young people. The Humber and North Yorkshire ICB’s decision to make children and young people’s mental health a ‘golden ambition’ has aligned partners across sectors and proved the principle that system change is possible when leadership, evidence and partnership are aligned.

“The Growing Up Well model can shape national policy and local practice. It is scalable and adaptable to different areas, so that we can begin to move from managing crises to preventing them, and children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing can improve. It is a practical blueprint for ICB leaders, Directors of Children’s Services and local leaders to transform support alongside the national neighbourhood health model, Best Start Family Hubs, and Young Futures hubs.

“Sticking our heads in the sand, simply blaming overdiagnosis, and hoping it all goes away is not a strategy. Building a modern, integrated, place-based system that meets the needs of children is the only way forward.”

[.download]Download the report[.download]

ENDS

For more information:
Jo Green
Director of Communication and Strategy, Centre for Young Lives
jo.green@centreforyounglives.org | 07715 105415

Notes to Editors

1. Download the full report: “Growing Up Well: A new place-based model to radically improve children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing”.