Children, Young People & Families Feedback

We did: We are continuing to work on improving how we communicate with young people and families. This has included making our website simpler and easier to use. We also regularly use the ‘news’ feature for big updates in Mindworks which can be found on the Mindworks News page. We also continue to develop our approaches to this.

We did: Kooth is an online counselling part of Mindworks and is free for young people to access in Surrey. This is instant, anonymous online support, and is available for young people waiting for face-to-face/specialist support or assessments.

Early support continues to be a key priority for Mindworks. Within the service, there are 13 local and national charities that focus on supporting young people and families earlier. The support they offer includes groups, 1 to 1 support, projects, school-based support, and other approaches. More information about these services can be found here: Early Support, Mindworks.

We did: Mindworks has lots of support that isn’t ‘clinical’ and is early support, based in the community and in schools rather than specialist support.  Early support is mainly offered by 13 charities, represented by ‘The Surrey Wellbeing Partnership’ who are all part of Mindworks. 

We did: There is some support that you can access without a professional and we are working hard to explore how we can increase these options:

• Youth Counselling service
• Reaching Out service
• Child Wellbeing Practitioners
• CYP Havens
• STARS (Sexual Trauma: Assessment, Recovery and Support service)
• Groups for parents/carers
• Groups for children and young people

We did: In Mindworks, we have made sure that our Neurodevelopmental support is accessible without needing a diagnosis. We continue to work with education, the council and other organisations, to make sure this is true across Surrey. 

It is the vision, that as soon as a need presents, support can be offered to meet that need which you do not need a diagnosis for. To support this, there is lots of information and advice available on the Neurodevelopmental needs page on the Mindworks website.

National Autistic Society also offers 1-1 support for young people after their diagnosis, to help them understand and make sense of their diagnosis. For more information, contact surrey.familysupport@nas.org.uk. They also have a Transition Support service, providing 1:1 help to those aged 16-18 to understand how their Autism affects them as an individual. We can help them reach their own personal goals and support transition to adulthood. This is a free service for those awaiting a diagnosis or who already have a diagnosis of ASD.  Self request support: assist.surrey@nas.org.uk

A further update about the recent changes to the Neurodevelopmental pathway can be found on our news section.

Support available

Mindworks has a ‘Neurodevelopmental Service’ which includes Surrey and Borders Partnership, National Autistic Society (NAS), Barnardos, and Learning Space who work together to provide support to young people who may have neurodevelopmental needs (this does not need a diagnosis). There is also other support available in Surrey which can be found on the local offer: Surrey Local Offer.

Mindworks also has an out-of-hours helpline for parents/carers 5pm-11pm, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  0300 222 5755 for advice. 
 

We did: Mindworks support for young people and families is mixed. Wherever possible, young people and families will be given the option to choose.

• Online – in groups and 1 to 1 support
• Online resources
• In schools
• Somewhere in the community – in a cafe, youth centre 
• Some more specialist support is delivered in healthcare locations 
• Mindworks also has several youth café’s and groups, open for any young person:

BFree Youth Cafe (LYP) in Leatherhead.

Hideaway Cafe, Guildford (Matrix) in Guildford

WAVES youth group YMCA East Surrey  - in different locations in East Surrey (Tadworth, Oxted etc).

We did: All Mindworks staff should be setting goals with young people. This helps you see and celebrate the progress you are making.
When we first meet with young people, we try to get to know you and your strengths, so we can build on these too.

In Surrey, there is an annual Surrey Youth Voice Awards which celebrates the achievements of young people in Surrey. You can vote for your friends too! 
 

We did: There are lots of different ways that we are supporting parents/carers knowledge to support their child. These include:

• Barnardos Parent Wellbeing Service
• Webinars on topics relating to young people’s mental health 
• Parent/Carer Workshops - HOPE 
• Neurodevelopmental workshops and advice 
• Mindworks Neurodevelopmental Workshop

We also have different services that are based in schools (School Based Needs and Mental Health Support Teams) which focus on working with school staff and training schools on different topics.

You shared that you would like increased check ins whilst waiting for formal support/assessments, information on wait times and increased suggestions of support available before seeing someone in Mindworks. You told us that more groups and community spaces would help and being able to track a request for support.

We did:

• All Mindworks organisations have processes to check in with young people and families who are waiting for formal support or assessments/diagnosis. This is based on how long you have been waiting, and the needs of you or your child.
• National Autistic Society and Barnardo’s are providing extra calls for parents/carers of the young people on the Neurodevelopmental wait list to offer support and check-in. 
• We have added information about how long you might wait for neurodevelopmental assessments to a new ‘what to expect’ letter and the ⦁    Neurodevelopmental service page on the Mindworks website. 
• The Mindworks Communications team is creating new information on ‘what you can expect’ before/during and after support which will be available on the website.
• There is a long-term plan to explore how technology could be used which would help track your requests for support. 
• Since November 2023 there have been increased calls to families who are waiting for an assessment/ diagnosis from the Neurodevelopmental service.
• We have also created advice for families who access private emotional wellbeing/mental health support, to make sure this is a safe option.

You shared that you would like professionals to have more knowledge about neurodiversity and how to support young people better, in school and generally. You would like more information and advice about neurodiversity yourselves, and more information about what support is available.

We did:

• The Mindworks website now includes more information about Neurodiversity and strategies. 
• Work is starting on a digital profile tool to support understanding what strategies should be used to support a young person’s needs.
• Our ‘Navigating the maze’ parent/carer workshop has recently been made available.
• Surrey’s all age autism strategy has a focus on training. There are plans for a new project which will involve people with lived experience of Neurodiversity, creating a series of videos for young people and adults to share their experiences, knowledge and what supported them. 
• Some Mindworks partners provide in school training for staff (Barnardos, NAS and Eikon) and offer Neurodevelopmental support (without and after a diagnosis) for parents/carers and young people.
• The Mindworks Neurodevelopmental team offers advice (consultations) to schools to support individual young people.
• There will be 4 new Neurodevelopment advisors (recruitment March/April 2024) part of the Surrey County Council Early Intervention Team, to support schools in their understanding and knowledge of how to support children and young people who may be neurodivergent.
• There is new training on Learning Disability and Autism available for health and care services. The Health and Care Act 2022 now says that staff in health and social care must receive learning disability and autism training, which will include Mindworks.
• A new project ‘Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools’ started in April 2024, to create and deliver co-produced neurodevelopmental training with families, for 40 primary schools in Surrey.

You shared that navigating support can be confusing and the Mindworks website was not always easy to understand what is available and how to access it. You asked for extra guides to understand what to expect. You also told us that having a map would help you understand.

We did:

• Mindworks held workshops with young people, parents/carers and professionals in July 2023 about the website. This feedback has helped re-design it, make it simpler and update the content. What has been achieved so far can be found here: 

• The Communication team are currently doing a ‘What is Mindworks’ campaign, to try and make Mindworks clearer. This includes a social media campaigns, posters and communication with schools as well as looking at how Mindworks is described with the wider system.
• Surrey Youth Voice, Consulting Youth Advisors Youth Participation Group are creating a new guide from a young person’s perspective, on what to expect when receiving extra wellbeing and mental health support. 
• It has not been possible to create a ‘journey of support’ map because of the many ways that a young person may get support, and because this regularly changes. Instead, a visual one-page Mindworks visual ‘map’ which was also requested is being created and will be uploaded to the website. 

You shared that young people would like more flexibility about the amount of sessions they have and would like to have more than 6-8 sessions as it can be difficult to build a relationship and open up. You also said you would like more options to self request support. You told us that it isn’t always clear how to re-access support and asked for this to be made easier and clearer.

We did:

• Clearer self-request options have been added to the website: Groups for Young people and Groups for parents/carers. 
• In Mindworks, sessions are offered based on the needs of the young person and guidance for the different types of support Mindworks has available. For example, 6 sessions and a review are offered in family therapy, with a further 4 sessions possible. Where additional sessions are needed, this is discussed with the young person and/or family, and in supervision to agree on whether more sessions, a different type of support, or another agency would best meet the young person’s needs. ​
• Mindworks has been exploring how many sessions young people are receiving, and the needs of young people we are supporting. We also plan to explore how and when more sessions are offered so that we have a consistent approach. 

• Young people from Consulting Youth Advisors (CYA) and ATLAS have reviewed the closure letters sent by Surrey and Borders Partnership. They looked at what support services children, young people and families are signposted to and shared what support services young people find helpful. They also shared feedback on how to make discharge letters easier for young people to understand. 
   

Families shared that supporting a young person who has mental health or neurodevelopmental needs can be difficult. You asked for more support and increased suggestions of peer support spaces like Family Voice Surrey and to develop more peer support opportunities.

We did:

• Mindworks has had a Support for Parents Service provided by Barnardos for several years.
• During the increased check-in calls for those currently on the wait list for neurodevelopmental assessment/ diagnosis, parents and carers should be signposted to Family Voice Surrey.
• We have updated the parent/carer information pages on our Mindworks website and we are continuing to add to this.
• Mindworks partners are offering more parent/carer spaces and support options. E.g. coffee mornings, extra webinars, or peer support. This includes the fortnightly HOPE parent/carer groups.
• There has been an increased focus on sharing parent/carer support across Mindworks.