Published on: April 25, 2024
At the start of the year, Compass Changing Lives expanded their remit to include two new areas of Derbyshire, and with them two new Centres of Excellence: Glossopdale School in High Peak, and Granville Academy in South Derbyshire.
Compass Changing Lives are a Mental Health Support Service for children and young people in Derby and Derbyshire that now comprises of eleven Mental Health Support Teams across Derbyshire. Each of those MHSTs supports a particular area in Derbyshire, with a specific school acting as a Centre of Excellence. Centres of Excellence work closely with MHSTs to support children and young people’s mental health in the area, and work similarly to a base of operations for a MHST.
Along with two new Centres of Excellence, comes two more Mental Health Support Teams for the High Peak and South Derbyshire areas, each with dedicated teams of practitioners committed to promoting mental health and wellbeing in their communities.
Sue Gilbert, assistant head teacher at Glossopdale School spoke about establishing Glossopdale as a new Centre of Excellence:
“Having this provision makes us a Centre of Excellence for Mental Health and we’re very proud of this new status and grateful for the resources going into the project.”
Declan Royston Webb, Designated Safeguarding Lead at Granville Academy, had the following to add about Granville:
“Here at Granville Academy, we are proud to have been successful in our bid to become a Mental Health Centre of Excellence and feel privileged to be hosting the Compass UK team on site with us. The addition of the Compass team to Granville Academy will undoubtedly bring significant benefits to our students, staff, parents and carers. They join us at a poignant time when nationally concerns around children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing continue to rise.”
In the intervening months, these new Centres of Excellence and their respective MHSTs have been establishing themselves by working together to grow their presence in their areas.
Suzanne Abbott, Team Leader for the Compass Changing Lives MHST for South Derbyshire, spoke about working with Granville Academy:
“The South Derbyshire team and I are extremely excited to be setting up a new MHST in the Granville Academy. We have made excellence progress meeting with all our secondary and feeder schools and have highlighted a huge demand for our service in this area. Our centre of excellence has welcomed our team with open arms, all the staff are extremely friendly, and I would like to say a special thank you to Declan and Jess for supporting us to set up a wonderful office located in Granville. We are all excited and looking forward to working with all our allocated schools, supporting children, young people, schools, and their families.”
Smita Sandhu, Team Leader for the Compass Changing Lives MHST for High Peak, has similarly positive things to say about working with Glossopdale School:
“We have been given a great welcome by Glossopdale School and it has been a really positive experience. Both Sue and Jo have been amazing at getting the team settled in. Most importantly we are looking forward to getting started working directly with the children, young people and families in all the schools that we are working with. We are building some great relationships and working closely with the allocated schools. Not only with Glossopdale as our Centre of Excellence, but also other secondary schools such as St Philip Howard and Chapel High School, as well as primary schools in the Glossop and Chapel area.”
Declan Royston Webb had more to say about the partnership:
“We are excited by the wide range of support, interventions and experience that the Compass UK team bring and look forward to working with them to further enhance and develop our academy-wide mental health and wellbeing offer.”
Teams from Compass Changing Lives, Granville Academy and Glossopdale School are all looking forward to more to come from this partnership.
Derby and Derbyshire Mental Health Support , Derbyshire , MHSTs , Schools