Thank you for visiting this page and for your interest in Mental Health Champions Plus. Please note that the Mental Health Champions offers will look different for 2024 onwards!
From now on, we are moving away from having a Core/Plus distinction and will be focusing instead on supporting all schools in the Bradford District to clarify what approaches and interventions they offer at different levels of the
THRIVE framework (not to be confused with the Thrive Approach, which is a trauma-informed whole school approach to improving mental health and wellbeing).
The THRIVE framework is increasingly used across Bradford District and Craven as a way of organising the many different services available to support children and young people at five different levels of need;
Thriving, Getting Advice, Getting Help, Getting More Help and
Getting Risk Support. It is increasingly used by partners across Education, Health and Social Care and helps to bring some clarity and consistency to a system that can otherwise feel difficult to navigate.
Over the next three years, we hope to support all schools in the Bradford District to clarify their THRIVE offer and to publish this within school and externally (e.g. on their school website) so that it is clear to, and understood by, a range
of audiences. The Educational Psychology Team will support individual schools to do this and are currently working on producing resources to make this process as easy as possible.
The work we, and you, have previously done through Core and Plus has helped to lay the foundations for the THRIVE framework being used more widely across Bradford District. It’s now time to take it to the next level!
My school has previously been part of Mental Health Champions Plus – what now?
Brilliant news, especially if you actively engaged with the support that was available. You’ll already have done a lot of the thinking around what approaches and interventions you offer, so it will not take very much work to translate this onto the
THRIVE framework when it is your turn to do so. This is especially true if you have also been part of the Chartermark and/or DfE Senior Mental Health Leads programmes. Your school is likely to be one of the earlier schools who we link with. In the meantime,
you’ll still be able to come to termly Champions meetings to stay up to date with developments and network with Champions in other settings. We will advertise the dates for these soon.
My school was previously part of Mental Health Champions Core – what now? This is also great news, especially if you actively engaged with the support that was available. The Educational Psychology Team will support you to clarify what your
THRIVE offer looks like and to identify any gaps in provision. In the meantime, you’ll still be able to come to termly Champions meetings to stay up to date with developments and to network with Champions in other settings. We will advertise the dates for
these soon.
I don’t think my school was part of Core or Plus – what now?
Don’t worry! We aim to link with all schools in the Bradford District over the next three years so we should be in touch with you between now and the end of 2026-27. In the meantime, your nominated Mental Health Champion will be able to come to termly Champions
meetings to stay up to date with developments and to network with Champions in other settings. We will advertise the dates for these soon.
Will you still send Champions newsletters? We will continue to produce newsletters for Champions to keep them up to date with local and national developments to do with mental health and emotional wellbeing in schools, but these will be
sent termly rather than half-termly from now on. These will be sent to Champions registered on our existing Core or Plus registers, plus any new Champions who request to be added to the mailing list. If you would like to be added to this list, please email
mhchampions@bradford.gov.uk.
Can I still access the Healthy Minds training packages? Yes, if your school was previously part of Mental Health Champions Plus, the Chartermark or the DfE Senior Mental Health Leads programmes. As before, we encourage schools to pace themselves
when accessing these packages rather than accessing several at once, to give time for people to get different approaches up and running effectively. Please email
mhchampions@bradford.gov.uk for more information.
Dates for Champions network meetings: - Autumn: Tues 22nd Oct and Weds 23rd Oct / Spring: Weds 5th March and Thurs 6th March / Summer: Tues 10th June and Thurs 12th June. Meetings are held on Teams and Champions are encouraged
to attend where they can. Please see Skills4Bradford for full details and to sign up.
Need to notify us of a change of Champion? Thank you, it helps us to have an up-to-date mailing list! Please email
mhchampions@bradford.gov.uk to let us know who is now the named Champion for your school or setting.
If you have any other questions, please email
mhchampions@bradford.gov.uk and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
MHC Newsletters for last year can be accessed here:
2023-24 Autumn 1
2023-24 Autumn 2
2023-24 Spring 1
2023-24 Spring 2
2023-24 Summer 1
2023-24 Summer 2