Norfolk Children and Young People’s Services hosted their first ever Children and Young People’s Mental Health Conference to mark the launch of their Emotional Health Pathway. The conference saw attendance from over 250 professionals from across the children’s workforce in Norfolk.

The conference was headlined by key note speaker Robin Balbernie, a nationally respected child psychotherapist, who has influenced infant and children’s mental health across the UK for the past 25 years.

Throughout the day a breakout marketplace hosted stands for partner organisations and other Healthy Child Programme pathways. This created a hub of activity for sharing best practice, celebrating success and encouraging collaborative working.

The Emotional Health Pathway is based on providing a high quality early intervention service and their new call sign “Hold the child in mind” encapsulates the multi-agency whole system approach in Norfolk.  It has even started a new hashtag on social media - #NorfolkHCIM.

The pathway’s holistic approach focuses on the broader emotional support that accompanies any care package or intervention, as the service continues to strengthen its focus on what is best for families, children and young people in Norfolk.

Sian Larrington, Head of Service, Norfolk Children and Young People’s Services:

“We are delighted that so many professionals were interested in the conference. I believe the Emotional Health Pathway has an ethos that is equally embedded throughout all the services we deliver, where our staff are focussed on making every contact. This is instilled as a way of practice in all of our teams, from our administrators handling calls through to our staff undertaking home visits or individual sessions with children and young people, where our approach is to actively seek to offer emotional support at a very early stage for families, children and young people in Norfolk.”

To find out more about the Emotional Health Pathway watch this animation: