Gloucester House Outreach Service, part of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, comprises of an integrated team of clinical and education specialists that provide innovative service by offering skills and experience in both mental health and education that addresses the most pressing needs and challenges facing our children sector today. It is a standalone service that can be purchased by local authorities or schools.
The aim is to support children with social, emotional and mental health needs to either remain in mainstream schools, stay engaged in some form of education through bespoke direct teaching or effectively transitions into appropriate provisions. Our service also provides extensive staff training in addition to the direct work with children, families and the professional network around the child – for example schools, CAMHS and children’s services.
We can offer:
- Multi-disciplinary assessment of mental health and educational need for children with complex social, emotional and mental health needs
- Multi-disciplinary education and clinical interventions for children, schools, families and networks which are tailored to specific needs
- Staff training and consultation – face to face and by phone
- Support to professional and informal networks and the collaborative coordination of complex networks to achieve coherent and effective care plans
- Support to plan interventions and sharing resources and interventions that have been used at Gloucester House to build a child’s cognitive ability and build strategies to manage their feelings and relationships with others
- Liaison and linking with the network to facilitate joint thinking and improved collaborative working between health and education
Strengths of the model:
- We are able to offer support through our role as outside objective observer. This allows us the benefit of being in a unique position of offering systemic consultation to the whole system, drawing on our extensive knowledge in child mental health and education
- Schools can access specialist input from staff with vast experience of working with children with similar needs and presentations
How we work
Following an initial exploratory meeting, a core intervention is agreed, involving a combination of:
- Exploratory meetings
- Network meetings
- Meetings with key contacts
- Therapeutic/other sessions
- Observations
- Team discussion, report write-up, follow-up phone calls
Depending on identified need, this may lead to a bespoke package of specialist clinical and educational support for the individual child, or wider support for the network or provision.
This may lead to subsequent capacity building or specialist clinical or intensive specialist packages depending on identified need.
What people say about us
- Our clients say we are “deeply caring”, “extremely responsive” and offer “a range of areas of expertise”
- “Highly responsive service which adapts packages to meet the presenting needs”
- “I like that the team can be a ‘neutral observer’ and be non-judgemental in their approach”
- One school reported being “more able to tolerate and manage destructive behaviour. No longer isolating the child, which may have reactivated previous traumatic experiences of neglect”
- Our school was “supported to maintain boundaries whilst responding to behaviour”
- “The training provided insight into student’s and our own mental health”
If you would like to make a referral for outreach support please download, complete and return our outreach referral form.
Find out more about working with us:
Contact Nimisha Deakin, Clinical Nurse Specialist, 0208 938 2063
Consultation and audit
Gloucester House also offers consultation to schools around meeting the needs of particular children.
Gloucester House can work with school leaders to audit systems and implement new systems in their schools around behaviour and staff support.
Please contact us for further information on prices and packages.