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Place2Be turns 30

Place2Be turns 30

This September marks 30 years of Place2Be supporting children's mental health! 

Since our founding in 1994, over 70% of schools have accessed Place2Be’s training, support or resources. Our mental health practitioners have helped over 400,000 children and young people build life-long coping skills and thrive.

Together we’re making a difference - by equipping people with the skills and knowledge they need to support pupils, we are transforming the lives of children and young people.

Since 1994 Place2Be has led the way, working in deep partnership with school communities, supporting, empowering and building children’s resilience to make a difference for the long term in their lives. We look to the future with optimism and enthusiasm, ready to build on 30 years of evidence and experience, and resolute in our determination to help create a system and society where every child can reach their full potential. Catherine Roche, Chief Executive at Place2Be

Watch our founder, Dame Benita Refson DBE, talk about her vision behind Place2Be. Hear from pupils who have benefitted from Place2Be's support and resources.

 

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Our mental health professionals have helped over 400,000 children and young people build life-long coping skills and thrive.

How have we achieved this?

We have developed the whole school approach to improve mental health and wellbeing of pupils and the whole school community. By training and supporting school staff, mental health professionals, parents and families, we're empowering them to best support children and young people. We understand the importance of building trust with the children and young people, their families and the schools we work with.

Having a trained mental health professional in our partner schools means children and young people get the vital support they need. Around 1,000 mental health professionals train with us each year. We have goals to continue building and expanding the mental health workforce, as well as making it a more accessible and inclusive career path.

In addition to training child counsellors, Place2Be helps develop school staff and teachers to give them the skills and knowledge they need to better understand behaviour. This understanding empowers school staff to have the confidence to help children and young people be the best version of themselves.

We know there's so much to do. Over 75% of children and young people need mental health services that they're not receiving. That's where Place2Be can help - by training more mental health professionals, we can reach more children and young people across the UK.

As we mark our 30th anniversary, children and young people in today’s world need support more than ever. When schools and communities are equipped and enabled to tackle issues early on, it works. Looking ahead, we remain committed to listening to, supporting and empowering children and young people themselves, the trusted adults around them and developing an inclusive diverse and skilled education and mental health workforce to deliver and inspire change nationally. Catherine Roche, Chief Executive at Place2Be

What Place2Be offers

We offer the opportunity to become a partner school. Partner schools receive a variety of mental health support services that encourage a whole-school approach to mental health. When a school partners with us, the support services are tailored to the needs of that school so they can get the most benefit.

Partner schools benefit from a Place2Be mental health professional who will be part of our school team. They work with the whole school community to improve mental wellbeing.

Learn more about our services in schools

We equip people with the skills and experience they need to support children and young people. For anyone wanting to become a child counsellor, they can train with Place2Be no matter how far through their journey they are.

We also offer a counselling placements programme for anyone training with us to gain a year of experience in a school, working directly with children and young people.

Learn more about becoming a counsellor with Place2Be

We developed Parenting Smart, which is full of articles, tips and videos for parents, families and carers with primary-aged children. These resources were designed to help your parenting journey be as easy as possible to navigate, so you can best support your child's wellbeing.

Learn more about Parenting Smart
The Place2Be session was really good in a way that I could just release everything. I could let everything go. It made a difference to me afterwards. I told my counsellor about anything that was on my mind, but I realised that I could tell other people too, like my mum. It gave me more confidence, and I was more comfortable about being around loads of people. Child who had one-to-one sessions with a Place2Be counsellor

A snapshot of the last year

Place2Be started out in just one school in London and is now working with over 650 schools across England, Scotland and Wales.

I’ve engaged with several counsellors over the years, but the support I received from Place2Be blew me away. The clinician's ability to offer compassion, challenge, humour, and encouragement was powerful. Everyone should have access to a Place2Be when doing a course that demands so much. Student teacher at Moray House School of Education and Sport at the University of Edinburgh

We've done a lot in the last year! Just to give an idea, we:

  • worked directly with a school population of over 350,000 pupils
  • had over 45,000 children and young people speak with our mental health support services
  • supported over 14,000 pupils through our targeted support
  • celebrated the 10th Children's Mental Health Week, empowering children and young people to express themselves, and to know that their voice matters
  • hosted a roundtable with partner organisations to find solutions to the rising challenge of school absences
  • launched bursaries for our child counselling courses to improve the accessibility of the career.

Read more about our impact

The origins of Place2Be

30 years ago, Dame Benita Refson DBE, a qualified counsellor, had a vision to embed mental health support directly into schools. She wanted to enable children to access help when and where they needed it, and she wanted this help to be there from an early stage.

By 1996 the service was expanding, and Place2Talk was added as a key component. Place2Talk is a mental health service that allows pupils to spend 15–30 minutes with a trained counsellor. They can go alone or with a friend to talk about any issues they might have. At this point, children could recognise they needed help and they could access counselling on their own terms. This was a real turning point; children and young people were given the confidence and opportunity to take control of their own mental health.

As Place2Be began to grow, it became clear that supporting children needed to involve the whole community. In 1998, we launched our first counsellor training course, funded by the Department of Health. Training counsellors, teachers, and school staff, meant we built a network of professionals who understood the importance of early intervention.

A few years later, in 2003, we extended our reach to parents and carers by launching A Place for Parents and later on, Parenting Smart.

Over the next 20 years, Place2Be went from strength to strength and continued to take the lead in building understanding in the importance of getting mental health support early on. From launching Children's Mental Health Week in 2015, to introducing remote support during the COVID-19 pandemic, we've been equipping children and young people with the skills they need to cope and thrive.

Key historic moments

Place2Be has achieved a lot in the last 30 years - celebrate and reflect on a few of the milestones with us below.

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Our founder, Dame Benny Refson DBE, set up Place2Be in 1994 to provide emotional support to children from an early age

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Analysis in 2010 showed the Place2Be counselling is half the cost of Children's Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

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Her Royal Highness, The Princess of Wales, became the Royal Patron of Place2Be in 2013

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We launched the first Children’s Mental Health Week in 2015 – a week dedicated to building understanding of children and young people’s mental health

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Our Parenting Smart website was set up in 2021 – full of top tips, videos and resources for parents and carers to support their child

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We launched our bursary scheme in 2024 to make our training and qualifications as accessible as possible

News And Blogs Children Playground

Our history

Read about all our big milestones since we were founded in 1994.

Learn about our history

News & blogs

Students from St John Vianney RC Primary standing on school grounds with presenters Ben Shires and Robyn Richford (centre), alongside Place2Be School Project Manager Veronika Medne.

The Young BAFTA Roadshow with Place2Be arrives in Scotland

St John Vianney RC Primary and St Monica's (Milton) Primary RC School were surprised with Young BAFTA Roadshow visits.

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A close up image of two students sitting next to each other, both with their hands placed on their laps. The students are wearing black and grey school uniforms.

Experts urge the Government to prioritise mental health for better school attendance

In a joint letter, experts call on the new Secretary of State to address school absence through a mental health lens.

Read more
A secondary school pupil sitting at a table with a Place2Be counsellor

One-to-one counselling and school attendance in the UK

The University of Cambridge has worked with Place2Be to understand links between counselling and improved school attendance.

Read more