New mental health support team Compass Bloom launches in Central and West Lancashire

Compass Bloom, a brand new mental health support team for children and young people and their families in Central and West Lancashire is launching on Monday with events in Chorley, Leyland and Skelmersdale.

The service, which also covers Preston, is provided by national children and young people’s health and wellbeing charity Compass and commissioned by Lancashire & South Cumbria ICB. 

It offers free and confidential emotional health and wellbeing support for young people with mild to moderate emotional health and wellbeing needs who attend one of 58 education settings.

Janet Ince, Mental Health Transformation Manager from Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS ICB, said: “I am delighted that this new resource is here to provide much needed support for our school and college children and young people who are struggling with their emotional and mental health by providing a range of therapeutic options that aim to address their individual needs.

"Compass have a wealth of experience and I look forward to working closely with their Compass Bloom teams and our other partners to ensure continued success.”

Rachel Bundock, CEO of Compass, said: “Following the pandemic and the lockdowns, safeguarding the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people has arguably never been more important.

“We believe in valuing each individual which means that every child or young person gets the support they need, when and how they want to receive it.

“Our staff have a growing caseload as we accept referrals, mainly from schools and colleges. We offer easily accessible advice and regular link sessions with schools to support their senior mental health leads to develop whole school or college approaches that embed a mentally healthy culture and environment for pupils and students within their school community.

“This includes supporting education staff to feel confident in identifying needs early and supporting children and young people to access support at the right time before problems escalate.”

Local children, young people and their families are being invited to the events to meet the team and discuss what Compass Bloom can offer. Also invited are local partners including teachers, headteachers, local Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services, online mental health  service Kooth, NHS England and Health Education England.

Staff consulted with local children and young people in youth groups over the summer about the name and logo.

New Compass Bloom Facebook and Twitter pages have been launched to keep people informed and the service has its own web page and associated news pages on the national Compass website.

Ms Bundock added: “We are absolutely delighted to be here to provide comprehensive and flexible support to the children, young people and families in Central and West Lancashire and to be able to help schools and colleges to further help their communities.

“We recognise that many education settings are already doing so much positive work to support their pupils wellbeing and its important we work collaboratively with them, without creating duplication and adapt the service to meet both settings and children and families’ needs. 

“We have assembled a group of very dedicated and skilled professionals and we are here to help.”

Events timetable:

Monday 10 October, 5pm to 7pm: Chorley Youth Zone, Chapel Street, Chorley, PR7 1BS

Tuesday 11 October, 10am to 6pm: Hub Open Day – Unit 8, Balfour Court, off Hough Lane, Leyland, PR25 2TF

Tuesday 11 October, 4pm to 6pm: West Lancs Youth Zone, Yeadon, Skelmersdale, WN8 6PZ