A NEW service supporting Wirral children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing will launch.

Named by local young people new website, ‘Branch’, will aim to help families before a child hits crisis point. 

Branch will work with public sector, not-for-profit and other mental health organisations. Together, these groups will aim on tackling challenges in the system, aiming to reduce wait times and make support easier to access.

Cllr Stephen Bennett, Chair of Children, Families and Education committee for Wirral Council, said: “Supporting children’s mental wellbeing is a top priority for services across Wirral’s health and care system. As a partnership, we’re fully committed to finding better ways to get our younger generations into the support that works for them, as quickly as possible.

“Branch uses an alliance-model approach, bringing together some of our existing brilliant support organisations and charities to improve mental health support for our borough’s young people.”

Funded by Wirral Council and the NHS, Branch will bring together Wirral’s mental wellbeing services digitally by providing an online hub.

The hub will offer easy access to information and a clear route into the right support for those aged up to 18 (or up to 25 for young people with SEND).

The alliance will aim to promote preventative support including things young people can do at home, local support groups and more targeted therapy-based projects, matching young people into the services that best meet their needs.

The alliance will also deliver training and culture change work with professionals in the borough to help encourage earlier support.

One of the organisations included in the partnership is the Open Door Charity, which provides mental health support for young people.

Lee Pennington, Director at Open Door Charity, said: “We strongly believe that collaborative working is the way forward. Bringing together services from health, children's services and the voluntary sector as an alliance will significantly improve the mental health support offered to children and young people.

“There are lots of amazing services supporting young people and their families in Wirral. By being part of the Branch alliance, we can work together to bring all the services together in one place and make it easier and quicker for children and young people to get the support they need, hopefully achieving a reduction in waiting times for services.”

Launching in November 2024, Branch will be open to all children and young people, families, carers and professionals.

The simple-to-use website will act as a first port of call, allowing anyone who is concerned about a child or young person’s mental wellbeing to access support.