Interview: Catherine Roche

How does Place2Be support young children's mental health?

Place2Be is a charity that delivers counselling for 75,000 children across England, Wales and Scotland in primary and secondary schools.

We have also begun basing parent counsellors in children's centres in the London Borough of Southwark, Berwick-upon-Tweed in Northumberland, and in East Lancashire. They support parents accessing children's centre services who face issues such as bereavement, depression and divorce.

What do you have in store for the organisation as its chief executive?

I've worked at Place2Be since 2003, having been chief operating officer for ten years and deputy chief executive for a year. Previously, I worked as a secondary school teacher and in the corporate sector, having gained an MBA qualification. Over the years I've seen how much headteachers need a service such as ours. I also recently became a parent and now understand better the daily challenges of raising children, which really motivates me.

Over the next two years, I want us to reach more schools. Currently, we have more than 200. We have parent counsellors in half of those, but I want that to rise to 75 percent, and eventually all of them.

We're also planning to grow our training arm. Our programmes range from one-day courses to full masters degrees. We cover subjects such as working with parents, children's emotional well-being and safeguarding.

What kind of mental health and emotional well-being issues are young children facing?

The issues we address with children often relate to deprivation, as we tend to work in challenging areas. They include loss or parental drug and alcohol abuse.

We offer two kinds of support in schools: Place2Talk, which is a drop-in session in school lunch hours, and one-on-one counselling. Children accessing Place2Talk often want to discuss friendship issues, a problem at home, or sometimes just share good news. They can go to the counsellor in groups, which helps normalise the Place2Be system.

Teachers, parents or project managers can refer a school child with more profound difficulties for personal counselling. We assess the child's level of need before we decide if Place2Be is the right approach for them. If it is, we agree a set time with the school for the child to leave lessons for a 50-minute session every week. If we think they require a different approach, we can refer them to other services.

Catherine Roache spoke to Gabriella Jozwiak