Setting Up a Support Network for Mental Health Leads: Insights and Experiences

She is happy to talk about supporting wellbeing in schools all day long and has a particular interest in staff wellbeing. 

 In 2023, I decided to start up a Senior Mental Health Lead’s Support Network in my area. In this series of 6 blogs, I talk about why I wanted to do that (and how it didn’t always go to plan) in the hope that it will give you some inspiration if you would like to do something similar. 

Last time in the blog, I reflected on the difficulties I had in being able to reach the right people. I wonder if in education we could do a better job of linking between schools. Perhaps that is a blog for another time.

In any case, at the second network meeting there were 10 people and from then on we have grown and grown. We have people from all types of school (primary to special schools), who do all sorts of jobs in school (from Deputy Heads to non-teaching pastoral staff) and who usually have more than one role in school (we are often also part of the safeguarding team, for example). This does mean that members of the group aren’t always able to attend every meeting (sometimes people are on their way and a crisis happens at school and they have to turn around and go back). I think this is a great demonstration of why a group like ours is so needed as I really feel that a big part of our network’s role is the support that we give to each other.

So, when we have finally all arrived, what actually happens at the network?

Again, because we often have new people joining, we usually spend some time discussing our own settings and what our current challenges are. Our original meetings were an hour long, but we found that this was not long enough for us even to just network. We currently do meet in a room with one long table so we go around and share our stories. Of course, it doesn’t really work like that either. We will start talking and other people will join in with their stories and we will all offer our experiences and support. We may not be able to solve the problem but it definitely helps us feel we are not alone.

I run the group via email and we do share our email addresses. I think that’s really important so that we never feel that we are on our own; there is always someone to reach out to if we just want to see that we have covered everything.

As we were discussing sharing support and resources, I looked for a way that we could do this online. I am also a Maths teacher and as I was looking on X (Twitter) one day, I came across a padlet with Maths resources on. I realised that we could do something similar for our group so I made one which you can find here: Senior Mental Health Lead Shared Resources (padlet.com) Some of these resources are specific to Lancashire but a lot of them anyone can access. Please do feel free to copy this one and make it your own. I’d love you to share with me what you have made.

I think the point of this blog is that sharing experiences and resources is really key. Again, there might be something great that someone down the road is using but you know nothing about. Why not meet up and ask them?

You could be the start of your own network. If you do start one, please let me know how you are getting on. I would love to hear from you.