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The Attendance Wellbeing Project 2025-2026

The Attendance and Wellbeing Project is for children struggling to attend school and their families. It is being delivered by a group of organisations with different expertise, working together and with the school to find the right support for each child. The school will talk with you about which activity might best suit your child, or you can talk to Vicky Eul, Peer Support Worker, Parental Minds to find out more. All parents and caregivers will be offered listening support and practical guidance from Parental Minds.

The Attendance and Wellbeing Project 2025-26 is being funded by The Devon Integrated Care Board (ICB) devolved Health Inequalities funding and as a function of the One Eastern Devon (OED).

The support on offer includes:

  • A forest school group for children/young people (YMCA)
  • Arts therapy sessions for children/young people individually or in small groups, online and in-person (Youth arts and Health Trust)
  • Groupwork and 1:1 work with children / young people looking at barriers and building confidence (Heads Up)
  • Peer Support for parents and caregivers drawing on lived experience and supported by professionals (Parental Minds)
  • The GROW (Guding Relationships with Optimism and Wonder) 6 week programme for parents and carers (Esteem Team)

There is more detail about each activity in the descriptions below. If you would like to sign up please use the link provided, and someone will be in contact with you soon.

HeadsUP

Group work
We will be offering group work to those not in or struggling to attend school. We will work with a group of up to 6 pupils over a half term period.

The group work will cover the following:

  • What makes you feel safe?
  • Barriers
  • Positive relationships and sense of connectedness
  • What are your strengths?
  • What are your hopes?
  • Building self-esteem and confidence

1:1 Work
Empowering children and young people to look after their mental health.

Navigating Change
During the last summer half term, we will be offering the Navigating Change sessions to the schools to help support children with their transition to secondary school or new classes.

www.headsupmha.com 

 

YMCA Exeter

As part of the partnership, YMCA Exeter will be delivering inclusive, multi-year group, forest school sessions to help young people feel comfortable on the school premise and to assist them in gaining skills to re-engage with the classroom more effectively. Utilising our fully qualified Forest school practitioner, with over a decade experience of delivering youth work, a background in education and a qualified teacher, we believe we have a winning formula to help children and young people thrive wherever they are personally.

www.ymcaexeter.org.uk 

Youth Arts & Health Trust
The Youth Arts & Health Trust are a charity based in Exeter who offer arts therapies for children and young people. They are offering: Progressions: An Arts Therapy project to help with engaging in education This programme will offer arts therapy sessions which focus on helping young people to name, explore and overcome their unique challenges when faced with difficulties attending school or changing schools. It will be child-led and we will remain open to recommending what is best for each child or young person. We will offer:
  • A series of up to 6 one-to-one hour-long online arts therapy sessions at home or in the school (via zoom). Available now.
And this will lead to:
  • A series of 6 group sessions on site at the school, bringing the group together in a nurturing and supportive group. Likely Jan/Feb 25.
This programme follows on from our successful Anxiety & Me programme, and explores understanding anxiety, improving confidence to speak out, recovery from bullying or other negative experiences and support to communicate with the school to help with inclusion and feeling more comfortable back in the classroom. We will also offer for each pupil the opportunity of a facilitated and supportive family and school communication meeting to enable each young person to feedback anything they would find especially helpful when attending school to staff at the school. This programme is also available to purchase by schools and local authorities. This offer is for grant funded sessions is limited in numbers. Please contact us for more details. www.youthartsandhealth.org 
Esteem Team

Esteem Team are a Community Interest Company that work with children and young people who have additional needs and/or struggle with their mental health. We are made up of a range of professionals who care about children’s and young people’s mental health. We are passionate about empowering, enabling and equipping children and young people so that whatever bumps in the road they face, they have their emotional strength, coping strategies and the support network to succeed. Esteem Team also support Parent/Carers of children and young people with additional needs and/or who struggle with their mental health.

Esteem Team can run the HOPE (Help Overcoming Problems Effectively) Programme for parents and carers. Each Programme is x 6 weeks and can accommodate approx 10-12 parents / carers. The HOPE Programme is based on a six-week, (2 hours a week) course attended by people who have similar needs. The programme helps people to focus on themselves as a person and is based on sound evidence about what works for people. It helps people discover new strengths and rediscover old ones to keep them well. It also aims to boost self-confidence and resilience, and helps people cope better emotionally, psychologically and practically with their condition.

Esteem Team can also attend multi-agency and practitioner meetings, bringing a neurodiversity lens.

www.esteemteam.co.uk 

Parental Minds

We offer parents and caregivers a safety net of support and hope through a listening ear and practical guidance. As well as having our own experience to draw on, our team are all trained in peer support, and we are supported by experienced professionals. The guidance we offer is robust because it’s been developed through families lived experience with input from professionals and researchers.

We offer face to face support:

  • Support guides
  • Drop-in cafe style hubs
  • 1:1 support
  • Low-cost counselling
  • Helping you navigate through health and education systems
  • Opportunities to influence mental health services

And virtual support:

  • Support guides
  • Drop-in online hubs
  • 1:1 support online
  • Guidance through the system
  • Opportunities to influence mental health services
  • Skills Workshops
  • Newsletters
  • Closed Facebook group

www.parentalminds.org.uk 

Sound Communities

Sound Communities will work closely with a small number of young people supported by the Bridges service who have experienced the journey from school exclusion, alternative provision and the youth justice system.

We will engage them with creative media activities, responding to their interests and skills, to capture their voices and help them to express how their experiences with the ‘system’ have made them and their families feel. They will tell us how they experience it and will go on to explore how they need it to be done differently. They will understand that this content will be played to those involved in the education system to help create change.

Calmer Lives

Calmer Lives is a CEDA service, a non-profit organisation. It provides therapeutic support to individuals of all ages with Neurological differences, such as ASC, PDA, ADHD/ADD. This support extends to the families and professionals around an individual so that they can all lead calmer, connected, happier lives.