Information for parents and carers
Parent and carer involvement including the team.
Thought-Full is part of a national programme called Mental Health Support Teams in schools (MHST). The name Thought-Full was chosen by young people. Find more information about Mental Health Support Teams.
Parent and carer involvement
Parents play a very important role in their child’s mental health. Services can offer support for a short time, but family life and the people who care for a child have the biggest and longest lasting influence on a child’s wellbeing. To support this, we work with schools to offer parent sessions, training and clear information.
When we work one-to-one with a child or young person, we also involve parents or carers where possible. How much we involve them depends on the child’s age.
For younger children aged 4 to 7, Thought Full usually supports parents first instead of working one-to-one with the child. As part of the first assessment, the practitioner usually meets the child. After this, the practitioner works with the parent or carer to support the child’s main difficulties and goals.
Research shows that this type of support works best for children of this age and lasts longer. Parents know their child best and can make positive changes at home in everyday life. They also learn skills to support their child as they grow and face new challenges.
For children aged 7 to 11, we usually think about parent based support first. If one-to-one work with the child is needed, parents must stay closely involved. This means parents attend sessions with their child or have weekly contact with the practitioner. This helps parents support and practise what the child learns.
For secondary age young people, we know the parent child relationship often changes and young people want more independence. Parents will always know that we are working with their child. We still aim to involve parents because they can support practice at home, encourage progress and help their child keep using what they have learned after sessions end.
From time to time, we also talk with parents and carers to hear their views. If you would like to be involved, email thought-full@westsussex.gov.uk.
The team
There are a variety of roles in the Thought-Full teams employed by Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT) and West Sussex County Council:
- Assistant Psychologists
- Educational Psychologists
- Educational Mental Health practitioners (including trainees) (EMHP)
- Mental Health Practitioners (MHP)
- Childrens Low Intensity Practitioner (CLIP)
- Voice and Participation Practitioner (VPP)
- Senior Mental Health Practitioners
- Advisory and Senior Advisory Teachers
- Clinical Supervisor
- Service Lead
- Coordinators
- Business Manager
- Team Managers
Further information
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Confidentiality is an important part of building trust between your child and their allocated practitioner from the Thought-Full team. We will seek parental or carer permission to work with children under 16, involving you in the sessions where appropriate.
We will always encourage your child to talk to you to let you know they are working with Thought-Full.
What we discuss within the sessions remains confidential between Thought-Full and your child (and you, if you are involved in the sessions), unless we feel that a child or young person is experiencing, or is at risk of experiencing harm. In which case, we have a duty of care to share this with the local safeguarding team and your child's School Safeguarding lead.
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We are an all year-round service, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
We will be able to continue sessions regardless of school holiday’s, however these may be held virtually over these periods on a secure online platform. This will be agreed directly with you and your child.
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Our interventions are designed to be short term, so we expect that we will work with your child for up to 10 sessions.
Each session is up to an hour long (this is flexible) and we will aim for these to be held over school hours.
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All practitioners will use a range of tools, which include questionnaires to help us plan together what interventions we will use and then evaluate if the strategy being used is working or not.
We will use them to:
- support discussions within sessions
- plan goals
- review if strategies being used are effective
- improve the service we offer
Some members of Thought-Full will be completing training so at times may request feedback from your child or yourself for their university so they can complete their course and qualify.
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Referrals into this service require the school’s senior mental health lead having a conversation with your child and explaining the role of Thought-Full and what it can offer.
If your child (and you as their parent or carer, dependent on age) agrees, the Senior Mental Health Lead will then complete the ‘Request for support form’ and send this to Thought-Full. If there is something in particular you would like us to know, ask the senior mental health lead to add this to the referral.
Our interventions rely on a collaborative working approach for them to be effective. It is therefore important that your child acknowledges they have a difficulty, and that they are motivated to talk about, and work on this. -
Data protection and privacy notice
The Thought-Full team will use questionnaires to collect personal and special category data, the processing of which is necessary to enable us to be compliant with the law (general well-being duties), and for reasons of substantial public interest.
The data will be processed in accordance with the 2018 Data Protection Act, the General Data Protection Regulations, and any subsequent data protection legislation. The data we collect will be securely stored and kept for period of up to 2 years before being appropriately destroyed.
The data we will collect will not be used for any other purpose than that stated above without your prior written consent. West Sussex County Council is registered as Data Controller (Reg. No. Z6413427).
Our privacy policy provides further information.