Liverpool Comes Together for Children’s Mental Health at Education in Mind Conference
The Education in Mind conference brings together over 300 professionals from Health, Local Authority, Education, Third Sector and Social Care to strengthen Liverpool’s Whole School Approach to Mental Health Support for Children and Young People.
More than 300 education and health professionals from across Liverpool came together on November 13th for the Education in Mind conference – a full day of learning, collaboration, and inspiration focused on strengthening children and young people’s mental health.
Hosted by the Liverpool Learning Partnership in collaboration with Liverpool’s Mental Health Support for Children and Young People’s Partnership, the conference brought together school staff, mental health practitioners, researchers, local partners and community organisations to share insights, explore new evidence, and deepen the city’s commitment to a Whole School Approach to mental health and wellbeing.
Lisa Nolan, Senior Programme Manager for Mental Health and Lead Commissioner for Children and Young People’s Mental Health and All-Age Neurodiversity Services at Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board, Liverpool Place, opened the event with a powerful reflection on the progress made over the past six years since the last Education in Mind conference. She highlighted significant developments across services, schools, and systems, while acknowledging the ongoing challenges and the need for continued collective action.
The conference began with a moving performance from Monksdown Primary School, who presented their NOW Festival piece, Rights Respecting School, showcasing the creativity and voice of Liverpool’s young people.
Throughout the day, delegates heard from an inspiring line-up of keynote speakers:
Dr Pete Hawkins, Founder of The Windmills Foundation, explored the concept of the Social Signature, encouraging schools to help young people develop a sense of belonging, wellbeing and purpose. His session focused on how children can be supported to “leave their mark for good” as they navigate the pressures of modern life.
Professor Mina Fazel, University of Oxford, presented early insights from the OxWell Student Survey, completed in 2025 by over 40 Liverpool schools. Drawing on this rich dataset, she discussed how school, home and wider social environments influence young people’s mental health. Her findings highlighted both the challenges and opportunities facing schools, local authorities and health services as they work collectively to improve outcomes.
Nadia Butler, Senior Researcher at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Violence Prevention, and Mia Magee from the RAISE Mental Health Promotion Team, shared results from a city-wide resilience survey with children and young people across Merseyside. Supported by Liverpool John Moores University, the research examined levels of wellbeing and resilience, providing vital insights into how children are coping and what support they need.
David Haydock and Rachel Wilcock from Edge Hill University presented initial findings from the Liverpool Learning Partnership’s Whole School Approach and Needs Analysis survey, including reflections from follow-up interviews with schools.
Delegates attended a wide range of workshops covering key topics such as the Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) offer, Seedlings support, referral pathways, SEND’s graduated response, link worker roles, school health support for wellbeing, ACEs in Education, transition strategies, supporting young men’s mental health, misogyny and discrimination in PE, suicide prevention, and more.
A lively World Café invited delegates into roundtable discussions that encouraged solution-focused conversations and collaborative problem-solving. Alongside this, an interactive Marketplace provided opportunities to connect with local services and organisations offering practical support for schools.
The conference also highlighted best practices from local schools, with presentations from Four Oaks Primary School, Archbishop Blanch School, Monksdown Primary School and All Saints Multi Academy Trust.
Organiser Kath Fraser-Thompson, Strategic Development Lead for Whole School Approach to Mental Health, said: “This conference is a reminder that it truly ‘takes a village’ and today that village is in this room. I want to thank every professional here, especially our school Mental Health Leads, whose commitment often goes unseen but is absolutely vital.”
Closing the conference, Amanda Williams, Associate Director of Quality and Safety Improvement for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB, added: “The scale of engagement today shows just how dedicated Liverpool is to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of its children and young people.
“The conversations, connections and insights from this conference will help shape our next steps as a city.”
A complete evaluation of the event will be available shortly, but initial feedback from delegates was extremely positive, with it being described as “Amazing”, “Brilliant”, “Informative”, “Interesting”, “Collaborative” and “Engaging”.
“It was so refreshing to see so many dedicated professionals and to be able to have time to reflect on what is on offer for our students. It’s given me a renewed vigour for tackling the challenges we face at school.”
When asked “What would you like to see in terms of follow-up/next steps from today?”, common themes were.
- Collate all services/resources of the conference.
- Shared practice and continuous meetings/network opportunities. More information on some of the services and consistent communication.
- Parents/carers’ involvement and help to identify barriers.
- More time in future conferences.
Thanks to the contributors:
ADDvanced Solutions Community Network
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust Mental Health Support Teams and Linkworkers
Youth Forum
Arts4Us
Barnardo’s Action with Young Carers
Bobby Colleran Trust
Branching Out Burnley
Can Do Partnerships/Kate Henderson
Cheshire & Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust & Merseyside ICB, Liverpool Place
LivPaC
Edge Hill University: Faculty of Education Leon Fraser Miriam Sakwa
Employability Solutions Ltd
Everton in the Community
Growing Stronger Judith Bairstow
HEARTS Maxine O’Neill
Kinship Carers
Kooth
Liverpool City Council:
- ASD Training Team
- SENNIS & BIT
- Education Psychology Service
- Family Hubs Lisa Lunt Steph Critchley
- Parenting Team
- Virtual School
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool Learning Partnership
Liverpool FC Foundation Andrew Hanlon
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust – School Health Team
Merseyside Youth Association RAISE Mental Health Promotion Team
Next Steps
University of Oxford University
Place2Be
PSS UK
Pupil Pathways – The home of SixIntoSeven
SIL (Support Inspire Learn)
Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership
University of Liverpool ASPIRE project
Young Person’s Advisory Service
MHST
Seedlings
Wellbeing Clinic
LGBTQ+ services
Parenting Team
Ygam
Windmills Foundation, Dr Peter Hawkins
