The Team
The Locality team is a multi-disciplinary team that offers support to 92 schools across Doncaster.
We have no threshold for our service and there are no formal referral processes. Support is accessed through direct contact with a member or the team and any professional can contact us for support.
Families can refer into our service either by speaking to their child’s school, doctor or by contacting our Single Point of Access Team on 01302 796191.
You can also follow us on Facebook @doncastercamhsnhs
Our Role
We provide consultation and advice to professionals and families. This can include clinics in school, consultation with school staff, family meetings and information gathering directly with young people.
Our aim is to support other professionals and the systems around the young person to make sure that any interventions and support they get improves their mental health and wellbeing. We do this through information gathering and clinical formulation, which helps all involved develop a better understanding of the young person’s needs. A clinical formulation uses all the information gathered to summarise the concerns and try to identify why they may be happening and also why they continue to cause a problem. It looks at strengths and experiences to best understand what needs to be done to help the young person feel better.
- Formulation becomes the foundation of our support and is reviewed regularly.
- We then use the formulation to develop a plan moving forward.
- We also offer training about young people mental health to schools and drop in sessions for families and young people.
If you have any suggestions about things you think would be helpful please get in touch.
Feedback
“Since having a locality worker I have only referred two children to CAMHS and that was with advice from the worker”
“Before our school had a locality worker school we were unsure how to best support our children and certain language used by our children would make staff feel panicky. Our locality worker, by her good communication and knowledge about mental health gave us the confidence to support our children better.”
“The allocation of a named locality worker has been an invaluable service to our school and we have seen great improvements in our most vulnerable children’s mental health because of it.”
“Consistency and quality of provision and advice enables us to proactively address mental health issues in order that crisis point is not reached. A strong professional working relationship has been established, based on mutual respect and with a joint aim and purpose. The breadth of knowledge and understanding is exceptional.”
“Both [name] and [name] have been quite inspirational regarding their in depth knowledge of a vast range of perceived mental health difficulties; equipping us with strategies and supporting us in planning meetings and supervision sessions. Additionally, they have gone over and above by offering guidance and support directly to parents which has been much appreciated. Since their intervention school feel that we are in an even stronger position to support our young people and families with mental health difficulties. Finally, this has impacted on staff wellbeing and confidence, pupil progress and home school relationships.”
“The support we have received since the locality workers have been in place has been hugely beneficial to our school and to our parents. We wish there was more opportunity for the workers to work directly with the children on specific programmes, as time, staffing and budget restrictions on a small school often prevent recommendations being able to be carried out and implemented.”
“Locality worker is approachable and explains things in a clear straight forward manner accessible by parents and staff”