NEW school “wellbeing workers” are to be introduced in York to improve children’s mental health.

A pilot scheme ran in 20 of the city’s schools this academic year, and will soon be rolled out across York.

Each of York’s six geographical clusters of schools will now have a dedicated School Wellbeing Worker, and their job will be to train school pastoral workers on spotting and dealing with mental health problems; and to do individual and group work with children.

St Aelred’s Primary School in Tang Hall was involved in the pilot.

Helena Fowler-Towse, from the school’s senior leadership team, said: “It is important that parents know we as a school are supporting children’s emotional wellbeing as well as their learning, as we know these things go hand in hand. If a child is happy they will be a more confident learner.

“The project has allowed children to have a voice within a group work setting, providing a listening ear within a safe and secure environment where their issues can be offloaded and discussed.”

The new workers will be paid for jointly by City of York Council and Vale of York’s NHS commissioners, and will work with educational psychologists and primary mental health workers.

Dr Louise Barker, from the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said mental health services were a key priority for them.

“Children and young people spend a lot of time within the school environment – this scheme ensures they have access to high quality mental health services throughout their school lives, with raised awareness and reduced stigma of talking about and dealing with these issues.

“The feedback from the initial cluster projects was extremely encouraging and to have this project rolled out across the city is a really positive step for partnership working and improved emotional and mental well-being for everyone in our local community.”