Place2Be

Place2Be
Name	Place2Be
Formation	1994
Founder	Sue Grayer
Type	Charity
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Region served	England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland

Place2Be is a British charity established in 1994 that provides mental health support and counselling services for children, young people, families, and school staff. Founded to address emotional wellbeing in primary and secondary settings, it operates in numerous schools across the United Kingdom and collaborates with educational, health, and philanthropic institutions. The charity has influenced public discussions about children's mental health and contributed to policy debates involving stakeholders in child welfare, juvenile justice, and social services.

History

Place2Be was founded in 1994 by Sue Grayer in response to rising concerns about children's emotional difficulties in urban schools. Early work involved partnerships with local authorities such as London Borough of Camden and collaborations with clinical teams associated with Great Ormond Street Hospital and the National Health Service. Throughout the 2000s the organization expanded alongside initiatives led by the Department for Education and reports from bodies like the Children's Commissioner for England, with outreach that intersected with research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience and evaluations by charities including Barnardo's and Mind. Major milestones included scaling services into secondary schools and forming links with professional training providers such as the University College London and the University of Manchester to develop school-based counselling curricula. Place2Be’s timeline reflects contemporaneous policy developments like the publication of green papers and strategies advanced by the Department of Health and Social Care and advocacy by campaigners connected to YoungMinds and Action for Children.

Mission and Services

The charity’s mission centers on improving mental health outcomes for children by embedding therapeutic services within school settings and supporting adults who work with young people. Core services include in-school counselling, whole-school mental health approaches, staff supervision, and parental support programs developed in dialogue with stakeholders such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and practitioner networks linked to the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Services are delivered by clinicians trained in modalities influenced by work at institutions like the Tavistock Clinic, the Anna Freud Centre, and the Maudsley Hospital. The organization also provides training and continuing professional development accredited by higher education partners including the University of Oxford and King's College London for practitioners drawn from diverse local authorities and academy trusts such as the Ealing Council and Manchester Academy Trust.

Programs and Interventions

Programs target early intervention, prevention, and crisis support through structured interventions like one-to-one counselling, group work, and classroom-based resilience curricula. Specific interventions draw on therapeutic models with lineage to theorists and institutions such as Sigmund Freud-inspired psychoanalytic traditions practiced at the Tavistock Clinic, cognitive-behavioural approaches related to work at the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies, and attachment-focused frameworks used by teams connected to the Anna Freud Centre. Pilot projects have been run in partnership with agencies including the Home Office for vulnerable pupils and collaborations with charities like The Prince's Trust and Coram to reach young carers and looked-after children. The charity has also produced public-facing campaigns and toolkits in concert with media partners such as the BBC and advocacy groups including Campaign Against Living Miserably.

Funding and Governance

Funding is a mix of statutory contracts with local authorities and schools, grants from charitable foundations like the National Lottery Community Fund and the Wellcome Trust, corporate donations from firms in sectors such as finance and retail, and philanthropic support from individuals and trusts including links to benefactors associated with institutions like the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Governance is overseen by a board of trustees whose membership has included figures from sectors represented by organizations such as Barclays, Tesco, and KPMG, and is subject to regulatory oversight by bodies including the Charity Commission for England and Wales. The charity maintains partnerships with academic evaluators at universities including University of Cambridge and University of Edinburgh to ensure fiduciary transparency and compliance with guidance from regulatory agencies like the UK Parliament’s select committees addressing child welfare.

Impact and Evaluation

Evaluation studies and internal audits assess outcomes on measures used by researchers at the National Children's Bureau and the Education Endowment Foundation. Reported impacts include reductions in reported emotional difficulties, improvements in attendance, and enhanced staff confidence in managing wellbeing, with data compared against benchmarks from the Office for National Statistics and longitudinal studies like those conducted by the Longitudinal Studies Centre. Independent evaluations have been published alongside frameworks from the Nuffield Foundation and cost–benefit analyses referenced by local authority commissioners such as Birmingham City Council and Leeds City Council. The charity’s work has been cited in parliamentary inquiries and policy recommendations from entities including the House of Commons Education Committee.

Partnerships and Campaigns

Place2Be has partnered with national and international organizations, running campaigns with media outlets and policy advocates such as the BBC, The Guardian, and the Children's Society to raise awareness of child mental health. Strategic alliances with educational networks like the Association of School and College Leaders and health partners including the NHS England enable cross-sector delivery. Campaign collaborations have included public fundraising and advocacy efforts aligned with high-profile events such as Children’s Mental Health Week and philanthropic initiatives linked to foundations like the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Category:Children's charities based in the United Kingdom