Children’s Mental Health Week 2025

Organised by the Place2Be charity, Children’s Mental Health Week 2025 is built around the theme of Know Yourself, Grow Yourself. In partnership with Disney and utilising characters from the animated film, Inside Out 2, the aim is to encourage children to grow and develop by embracing self-awareness and building resilience. It will also discuss the importance of building strong relationships with others to better cope with life’s challenges.

It’s an important time for raising awareness about mental health issues for children. In September 2024, Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, pointed out the sharp rise in anxiety levels in younger people. Referrals for anxiety-related therapy have risen from just under 99000 five years ago to more than 200000 in 2023-24, for children aged 17 and under.

The Commissioner went on to explain that anxiety is the most common reason children are referred to mental health services, with more than 270000 on a waiting list for support. She reiterated the need for a counsellor in every school in England, as well as earlier interventions to stop children reaching crisis point. You can read more about Dame de Souza’s recommendations here.

Further information about Children’s Mental Health Week 2025, along with free resources for schools, are available on the Place2Be website.

A counsellor in every school in England

BACP campaigns for a counsellor in every school

Back in March 2021 Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza appealed for every child to have access to therapy, highlighted by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) through their ‘School Counselling in England’ Campaign. Recognising that England lagged behind similar government funded schemes in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, BACP urged people to sign its petition.

In an update issued January 2025, BACP has briefed the current generation of MPs about their ongoing campaign. It hopes to keep the issue at the forefront of a strategy to tackle mental health concerns in England, and to secure funding for registered counsellors.

You can learn about the next steps in this important campaign to provide every school, academy, and FE College with a paid counsellor on the BACP website.

My original 2021 post can be found below:

Children’s Commissioner wants to rebuild childhood

Dame Rachel’s comments fit within her wider call on the BBC website to ‘rebuild childhood’ following the pandemic. After ‘seeing first-hand the effect of this crisis on young people’s hopes and dreams’, Dame Rachel asserts that sometimes our responses have not been good enough. She is urging policy makers to seize this moment in history, and to restructure our offer to children with the same spirit and ambition as the Beveridge report in 1942. This report went on to form the basis of the modern Welfare State in the UK after the end of World War Two, and it was as ambitious as it was popular, possibly because it was built on around individual responsibility as well as state intervention.

COVID-19 lost generation

It’s too early to see if anything so positive and transformational will emerge from the current crisis, although the Children’s Commissioner has already spoken of her commitment to ensuring there isn’t a ‘lost generation’ because of COVID. As well as calling for no reduction in Universal Credit, and the provision of free school meals through the summer holidays, Dame Rachel announced the launch of a ‘Big Ask’. This survey will gather the views and opinions of children’s reactions to the pandemic, as well as other barriers to achievement.

If you would like to know more about therapy, or you are looking for private counselling in Wolverhampton, Walsall, or the West Midlands area please Contact Me or call 07824 385338.