Blue Smile is a children’s mental health charity working across Cambridgeshire and the surrounding area. We support children aged 3-13 years in schools through providing expert one to one therapy. Half of all lifetime mental health problems emerge by the age of 14 so in childhood we have a window of opportunity to intervene early on, preventing deterioration. The difficulties experienced by children we support are very varied but include the impacts of trauma such as abuse, bereavement or domestic violence. We help many children who are showing worrying symptoms such as high anxiety, self-harm, and obsessive compulsive behaviours. These children are often overwhelmed by unmanageable feeling and emotions. Our expert, long-term therapy enables children who may be very withdrawn or disruptive in the classroom, to understand their feelings, feel more in control of these, and so participate in and enjoy school and home life. The therapy we provide is arts and play-based – the ‘natural language’ of younger children. It has an extremely positive effect - 96% of parents say that their child's mental health improved because of Blue Smile.
In addition to mental health problems, the children we support often face many other challenges. 57% of the children we support are recognised as disadvantaged and in receipt of Pupil Premium funding (previously free school meals). Almost half (47%) of the children we help have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Unusually compared to other services, we support each child for as long as they need us. It is this, and the expertise of our therapists, that makes such a positive difference in the lives of the children we help. Demand for our services is very high. During term time we help around 200 children every week.
We are extremely grateful to The Pixel Fund for supporting our project ‘Keeping vulnerable children safe’ with an award of £3228. Due to the long-term nature of our work, children develop trusting relationships with their therapists and are more likely to disclose any abuse or neglect they are experiencing. This can also become apparent through the arts-based therapy that we undertake where the child is able to express their feelings and situations through painting, drawing and working with clay. Through regular one to one contact with individual children, our therapists can also identify signs of abuse such as the unkempt appearance that can be associated with neglect. The wellbeing of every child we support is at the very heart of our mission so it is essential that we maintain the highest standards of child protection practices, and are well-equipped as an organisation to protect children, manage disclosures of abuse, and do everything in our power to keep children safe from harm. This grant will fund an independent Child Protection Audit and follow-up review and a range of other measures that will strengthen child protection at Blue Smile, including regular consultations with an external Child Protection expert; Safeguarding and Complex Case training for our therapists; and specialist external training for clinical staff members. This grant will help us to keep children safe from harm, as we support their emotional and mental wellbeing.