Merthyr Tydfil: focusing on children and young people’s mental health

This work is a collaboration between Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales and local organisations, groups and people within the community of Merthyr Tydfil. At the Foundation, we want to help create sustainable change within communities, and for this work to ultimately be completely locally owned. Throughout this page, the use of ‘we’ refers to the partnership working between the Foundation and the local community in developing this work so far.  

How we got here

The Foundation led a series of facilitated sessions in Merthyr Tydfil, bringing together local people, groups and representatives from across the public, private and voluntary sectors to discuss what change they want to see in their community and commit to collaborating on a shared vision. During the pandemic, children and young people’s mental health emerged as a priority, as there was a specific concern about how young people were coping with lockdowns.

Some areas of Merthyr Tydfil are among the most deprived in Wales, with high levels of unemployment. As a result, many children and young people are growing up facing the pressures and disadvantages of poverty alongside a lack of opportunities to fulfil their potential. This is having a negative impact on their wellbeing and mental health.

When young people are supported to process and regulate their emotions in a healthy way, they can learn how to cope with challenges and gain self-confidence. Local people in Merthyr Tydfil expressed concern that many young people are not receiving this crucial support as they grow up, and they are often unable to access professional support when they need it because services are disconnected and challenging to navigate.
There is a need to provide resources and nurturing environments where children and young people’s wellbeing is promoted, as well as finding sustainable ways to handle the demand for professional mental health services.

The vision

We want children and young people in Merthyr Tydfil be supported to overcome challenges and for their mental health and wellbeing to be prioritised.

Our vision is that children and young people in Merthyr Tydfil will:
• Feel safe, happy, healthy, confident and capable.
• Be able to cope with challenges, support each other, handle expectations and setbacks.
• Have their mental health prioritised, spoken about openly, and protected.

And be supported by a mental health system that:
• Is joined up in its approach, with all partners connected and working together.
• Thinks big, tackling the root causes of poor mental health on a large scale.
• Prioritises outcomes not outputs.

Who is involved

We are working with a cross-sector group of elected representatives and professionals including local and regional statutory bodies, the health board, voluntary sector and local CVS infrastructure organisation, schools and colleges.

These local partners have come together to drive long-term change that builds on and supports what’s already happening in the local area and improves the way we all work together to support children and young people. This group includes mental health practitioners, professionals who work with children and young people, and people with decision-making power. None of us can change things alone, but together we can.

We have formed a core steering group of local representatives who make key decisions on the overall direction and resourcing of this work locally and ensure it aligns with local strategic agendas and governance.

Progress so far

The Foundation has been working alongside local people and organisations in Merthyr Tydfil since 2020, with key progress including:

• Commissioning a strategic review of the current legislation, strategies, initiatives and services aimed at supporting children and young people's mental health at a national (Wales wide), regional (Cwn Taf Morgannwg) and local (Merthyr Tydfil) level.
  
  
• Identifying four priorities to start to work together on:
  1. Building connections between services
  2. Creating a pathway of mental health support linked to schools
  3. Working with children who have had adverse childhood experiences – these are highly stressful, and potentially traumatic, events or situations that occur during childhood and/or adolescence
  4. Preventing the bottleneck into specialist services – this occurs when high levels of demand mean that young people who need specialist mental health services can’t get the support they need, when they need it.
  
  
• Using a tool to rate our progress against several measurements – such as collaboration and shared vision – so that we can understand how our work is developing over time.

Our next steps in Merthyr Tydfil

We are working with Coproduction Lab Wales to facilitate this work locally, which includes:

1. Gathering intelligence on local needs, lived experiences, available services, gaps in provision and opportunities for adopting new ways of designing or resourcing local services related to our four priorities.
2. Using this collective intelligence to help the core steering group reach an informed decision on one or more opportunities to start taking action on.
3. Meeting with the wider local group to coproduce ‘prototype’ partnership experiments.
4. Supporting the core steering group with its objective of recommending a suitable governance structure which shares accountability for this work in Merthyr Tydfil.
5. Regularly communicating to everyone involved on the purpose and progress of the work.

Get involved

If you’d like to find out more, or get involved with our work in Merthyr Tydfil, please email us at dcranshaw@lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk