Children and Young People's Emotional Wellbeing Support

Update May 2025

Following the Health Reform and Public Health Cabinet Committee on 11 March, the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health took the decision to approve the commissioning of a new Therapeutic Support Service to support a growing number of children and young people in Kent living with mild to moderate emotional and mental health needs.

This service will be aligned with the wider Therapeutic Alliance model being procured by NHS Kent and Medway and will be delivered as part of the Kent Family Hub network.

The new service will commence from November 2025.

More information on this decision is available at Kent.gov.uk.

Update March 2025

Thank you to everyone who took part in this consultation.

The consultation report and KCC’s response to the feedback are now available from the 'Documents' section on this page.

These documents will be presented to Members of the Health Reform and Public Health Cabinet Committee on 11 March.

Details of any decisions will also be published on this webpage.

Original consultation text

We would like to hear your views on proposed changes to our emotional wellbeing support for children and young people aged 4 to 19 with mild to medium emotional wellbeing and mental health needs.

We are proposing to fund a new Therapeutic Support Service rather than our current Kent Children and Young People’s Counselling Service.

Instead of one-to-one sessions with a counsellor, the new service would run mostly group activities. These activities would help children and young people learn a new skill, activity or technique that is proven to help with emotional wellbeing.

We know that some children and young people might find it difficult to join a group. We would still have some one-to-one sessions to help some children and young people who need extra support or who find group sessions difficult.

For younger children and those with additional needs, the service would continue to include supporting parents and carers too.

The consultation document provides more information on our proposals and why we are proposing them. There is also a young person's summary and Easy Read version. All documents can be found in the 'Documents' section on this page.

Have your say

You can tell us your views by completing one of our consultation questionnaires:

If you cannot complete the online questionnaires, Word versions are available to download from this webpage, which you can complete and return either by email, post or in person at any Kent Family Hub.

If you have questions about the proposals or need any support to take part in the consultation, you can contact us via the contact details under the 'Who's listening' section on this webpage.

Following the end of this consultation, responses will be evaluated by an independent company. We will publish their report on this webpage. This report is expected to be presented at the Public Health and Reform Cabinet Committee in March 2025. Consultation responses will be considered before any decisions are taken. Details of any decisions will also be published on this webpage.

Update May 2025

Following the Health Reform and Public Health Cabinet Committee on 11 March, the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health took the decision to approve the commissioning of a new Therapeutic Support Service to support a growing number of children and young people in Kent living with mild to moderate emotional and mental health needs.

This service will be aligned with the wider Therapeutic Alliance model being procured by NHS Kent and Medway and will be delivered as part of the Kent Family Hub network.

The new service will commence from November 2025.

More information on this decision is available at Kent.gov.uk.

Update March 2025

Thank you to everyone who took part in this consultation.

The consultation report and KCC’s response to the feedback are now available from the 'Documents' section on this page.

These documents will be presented to Members of the Health Reform and Public Health Cabinet Committee on 11 March.

Details of any decisions will also be published on this webpage.

Original consultation text

We would like to hear your views on proposed changes to our emotional wellbeing support for children and young people aged 4 to 19 with mild to medium emotional wellbeing and mental health needs.

We are proposing to fund a new Therapeutic Support Service rather than our current Kent Children and Young People’s Counselling Service.

Instead of one-to-one sessions with a counsellor, the new service would run mostly group activities. These activities would help children and young people learn a new skill, activity or technique that is proven to help with emotional wellbeing.

We know that some children and young people might find it difficult to join a group. We would still have some one-to-one sessions to help some children and young people who need extra support or who find group sessions difficult.

For younger children and those with additional needs, the service would continue to include supporting parents and carers too.

The consultation document provides more information on our proposals and why we are proposing them. There is also a young person's summary and Easy Read version. All documents can be found in the 'Documents' section on this page.

Have your say

You can tell us your views by completing one of our consultation questionnaires:

If you cannot complete the online questionnaires, Word versions are available to download from this webpage, which you can complete and return either by email, post or in person at any Kent Family Hub.

If you have questions about the proposals or need any support to take part in the consultation, you can contact us via the contact details under the 'Who's listening' section on this webpage.

Following the end of this consultation, responses will be evaluated by an independent company. We will publish their report on this webpage. This report is expected to be presented at the Public Health and Reform Cabinet Committee in March 2025. Consultation responses will be considered before any decisions are taken. Details of any decisions will also be published on this webpage.

  • CLOSED: This survey has concluded.

    Main consultation questionnaire

    We would like to hear your views on our proposals for the children and young people's emotional wellbeing support and have provided this questionnaire for you to give your feedback. 

    We recommend you read the consultation document before responding to this questionnaire.

    You can answer all or as many of the questions as you like. If you would rather not provide feedback on a section or question, just move on to the next one.

    If you are a young person we recommend that you use the young person version of the questionnaire. 

    In line with other local authorities and government departments, we ask people to register to take part in some activities. We do this to protect the integrity of our consultations from individuals and groups who may attempt to unduly influence the outcomes of the consultation process and to give people the opportunity to choose to be kept informed. 

    As with all our consultations a Word version of the questionnaire is available from the consultation webpage for people who would prefer not to complete the online version. 

  • CLOSED: This questionnaire has concluded.

    Young person's questionnaire

    Before making any decisions we need to understand and consider people’s views on the possible new Therapeutic Support Service. You can tell us what you think by using this questionnaire, including how this could affect you and anything else you think we should consider. 

    We recommend you read the young person's summary of the consultation document before responding to this questionnaire.

    You can answer all or as many of the questions as you like. If you would rather not provide feedback on a section or question, just move on to the next one.

    As with all our consultations a Word version of the questionnaire is available from the consultation webpage for people who would prefer not to complete the online version.