Children and young people living in Tameside and Glossop will soon have access to a new and expanded Emotional and Mental Wellbeing Community Offer.

Due to launch on 1 December, it's being funded by Tameside Council and NHS Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The new offer will provide children and young people aged from 10 to 18 years and their families improved early access to emotional and mental wellbeing support in their local neighbourhood.

It has been co-produced with a group of young people with lived experience, with families and wider stakeholders.

It's based on the THRIVE Framework and is designed to increase access to ‘Getting Advice and Help’ for children and young people – supporting all to thrive. Specialist mental health support from Healthy Young Minds will still be available for those who need more help.

The Community Offer will provide a range of support and interventions, enabling young people to choose, depending on their needs. The range of options will include open access, one to one support, group work, digital support, support for families and enabling the wider system supporting young people, including schools.

The providers will also have a vital role in developing a mental wellbeing informed community, to support diversity, equality and inclusion and to reduce stigma. Young people will have an ongoing role in reviewing and further developing the offer.

As the Community Offer is being mobilised, the council says that all existing support and services will be maintained.

Councillor Eleanor Wills, Tameside Council’s Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Population Health, said: “The new offer aligns to a number of developing work streams including mental health in education, where Tameside and Glossop has just successfully gained funding for Mental Health Support Teams for educational settings who will support the whole school approach and deliver a range of interventions.           

“Throughout the whole process of developing the Community Offer, co-production with local children and young people has been at the heart – from developing the model and the language. The local research conducted last summer found that young people did not see the current system as enough but the new offer addresses their needs.

NHS Tameside and Glossop CCG Governing Body lead for Starting Well, Dr Christine Ahmed, said: “This is an exciting and brand new offer coming to residents in Tameside and Glossop who need mental health support.  It is what young people want. The development of the Community Offer, is just one of many priorities of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Transformation Plan around increasing access and focus on families. 

“I believe this will be a great asset to Tameside and Glossop and with ongoing co-production the Community Offer will grow from strength to strength. We are working collaboratively with local mental health providers to give people what they want.”

Charlotte Jacklin, a young person who was part of the co-production team, said: “I was absolutely honoured to be part of the co-production team to develop a new wellbeing service for young people in Tameside and Glossop.  I really enjoyed sharing my thoughts and ideas, particularly when we met and shared ideas with the different bidders. 

"I think the best part was looking at the different bids that were entered as we all had a chance to share our thoughts on each one and because discussing ideas really helped to build my confidence around other people. I am incredibly excited about the co-production becoming a reality as I would love to see how our ideas have developed into something amazing that will hopefully help many young people across Tameside and Glossop."

Lilling Zhang, another young person part of the co-production team, said: “I was so excited when I heard the co-production was finally becoming a reality and taking off after months of discussing and talking about it. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a part of something that would help my local community and other young people as I never felt like there was enough support for young people near me before.

"For me the best part of the co-production was the knowledge that what I was saying would make an impact and that my views would be heard in making this production. In a sense it feels like our little baby growing up and being able to finally share it makes it so much more powerful.”