BBC Children in Need backs Headspace with three-year funding to reach young people missing from education
We are delighted to announce that Headspace has been awarded a three-year Project Grant from BBC Children in Need to develop a specialist mentoring programme for young people across the North Cotswolds.
The programme will focus particularly on children and young people aged 10–17 who have become significantly disengaged from education, including young people with 0% school attendance, alongside anxiety, poor emotional wellbeing and increasing isolation.
For some young people, returning to school is not simply a matter of improving attendance. Anxiety can reach a point where leaving the house, travelling somewhere unfamiliar, meeting other people or walking through the school gates can feel overwhelming.
At Headspace, we believe the first step does not always have to be getting a young person immediately back into a classroom.
Sometimes, the first step is simply building a relationship with someone they trust.
Starting with the young person
The new programme will provide consistent, face-to-face, one-to-one mentoring at our Headspace base and appropriate community settings.
Rather than beginning with the question “Why aren't you going to school?”, our mentors will start by getting to know the young person, listening to them and understanding what is happening in their life.
The aim is to gradually rebuild confidence and emotional wellbeing, reduce isolation and help young people reconnect with the world around them.
That might eventually mean taking steps back towards education, but progress can also begin much earlier: leaving the house, meeting a mentor, going for a walk, trying an activity, reconnecting with an interest or simply becoming comfortable talking to another person.
Building on what we have learned
This programme has grown from a small pilot Headspace ran in 2025 with five young people who had become increasingly disengaged from activities and everyday life.
Two developed sustained one-to-one mentoring relationships over ten weeks. Other young people were supported into activities through our community partnerships, including physical activity opportunities, while one young person who had previously been isolating developed the confidence to attend our music and DJ sessions.
The pilot reinforced something we see regularly in our work: before we can expect a young person to re-engage with education or their community, we often need to help them rebuild trust and confidence first.
Three years to develop the programme
The BBC Children in Need award gives us the opportunity to turn that learning into a sustained three-year programme.
We plan to operate the programme for 45 weeks each year, providing 12 hours of mentoring capacity per week and approximately 200–240 one-to-one sessions annually.
We expect to work with around 25 young people each year, with support tailored to individual circumstances and a typical intervention of around eight sessions.
Crucially, success will not be measured solely by whether a young person immediately returns to school.
For somebody starting from 0% attendance and significant isolation, progress can look very different. We want to see improvements in emotional wellbeing, confidence, relationships and engagement with everyday life. We will use the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) alongside feedback from young people and their families to help us understand that progress.
Creating a route back
Our ambition is not for young people to become dependent on Headspace. Mentoring will provide a bridge towards something sustainable.
As confidence develops, mentors will help young people explore appropriate next steps. These could include reconnecting with education, accessing physical activity through partners such as Active Gloucestershire, joining one of our group or outdoor programmes, rediscovering hobbies and interests, or engaging with other community support.
For young people who have become completely disconnected from education and community life, these can be significant achievements.
Our aim is to meet young people where they are, build a relationship they can trust, and help them take the next step – whatever that first step needs to be.
We are incredibly grateful to BBC Children in Need for investing in this work and giving Headspace the opportunity to develop sustained support for some of the most isolated young people in the North Cotswolds.