Peer Mentoring for Secondary Pupils

Following the development of a local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Transformation Plan for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, Wiltshire Council (on behalf of the Wiltshire CCG) wishes to enhance early intervention and prevention by commissioning a service provider to work with Wiltshire secondary schools and academies, supporting and enabling them to establish a sustainable and effective formalised peer mentoring programme.
Peer mentoring schemes match older pupils with younger students in one-on-one relationships to provide guidance and serve as positive role models. With appropriate training and support, peer mentors listen to and support fellow pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing and help with challenges facing those being mentored including problems with schoolwork, social issues, peer pressures (e.g. to drink or smoke), family problems and tension; bullying and other typical difficulties with growing up.
Peer mentoring programmes, when designed well, can help to improve the emotional wellbeing of pupils by providing a helping hand and positive influence to younger pupils as part of a good system of school based support. This is a preventative and early intervention approach that will help resolve low level emotional wellbeing difficulties that could otherwise progress into more serious problems. Preventing the development of mental health problems among young people in Wiltshire is a key priority for the Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group.
The service will need to be designed in a way which takes advantage of existing school based resources and infrastructure, to ensure it is sustainable for the future.