BLMT provided a grant to ACE (Achieve Change & Engagement) to support their work providing young people in schools requiring support for their emotional health and wellbeing with weekly sessions seeing an A.C.E Practitioner.
Lucy Reynolds, ACE Charity Coordinator reports that between September 2018 and September 2019 the young people ending intervention have improved their emotional health, measured by paired outcome scorings, by an average of 48.97%.
Feedback comments from the sessions included the following comments:
‘I learn’t a lot. I’ve never been able to open up to a counsellor properly before. I’ve changed the way I think about strategies and it has helped me so much. Seeing A.C.E has motivated me and helped me deal with my stresses better.’
Young person
‘My daughter is generally a lot happier, her confidence is greater and her anxiety levels are lower. She seems more at peace with herself. She is able to show her feelings better at home, more hugs. She is generally happier and more talkative.’
Parent
‘Pupils who have accessed the service have become more emotionally resilient and been able to handle day to day difficulties in a more effective and appropriate manner. They have been able to rationalise difficulties and break them down into more manageable chunks, allowing them to remain in lessons and school successfully. Pupils who have accessed the support have been generally happier around the school site and seem more settled emotionally and mentally.’
School
Improved relationships, improved confidence and self-esteem and lower levels of anxiety featured strongly in all of the feedback received. Young people felt happier in school and exam stress was reduced. Both young people and parent/carers felt that relationships at home were improved and more open.
Feedback ratings over the year showed that 64.5% of service users rated the service overall as excellent; 27.75% rated the service as very good and 7.75% as good. 70.5% of service users felt that the service provided could not be improved.
