YPAS is a special kind of organisation. Since 1966, it’s been making a difference to the lives of young people across Liverpool, and what better way to highlight their work than during Children’s Mental Health Week? We sat down with the super busy (and lovely!) Janine and Lorna from YPAS for a quick chat.
Hi Janine, Lorna. Thanks for joining the first Capacity Conversation of 2025. Tell me a bit about YPAS’s work.
Janine: There’s so much, it’s hard to know where to start. Okay, a bit of background. YPAS is one of the first organisations in the UK offering wellbeing and therapeutic services for children and young people. Our focus is on 5-25 years olds and their parents, carers and families. That’s about 150,000 children and young people across Liverpool.
Our services are split between wellbeing and therapeutic, alongside a lot of complementary services. So if you’re a young person who’s struggling with their mental health or emotional wellbeing, you, your parents or carer can come into WISH, which is our ‘Walk In Support Hub’. That’s available across our three community hubs across the city. So, anyone that comes in will get to see a qualified mental health practitioner.
It’s really important to de-stigmatise young people’s mental health struggles. Our community hubs are great places to come in for a coffee and a chat. If you’re struggling with your mental health it can be hard to actually start those conversations. The way I like to think about it is if you broke your arm everyone would see it, it’s visible. With mental health, it’s not. It’s about giving children and young people the confidence to share how they’re feeling. We want to create an environment and culture where they feel like they are important and their voices and feelings are valid.
Lorna: We also have our Primary Care Liaison Service (PCL), where a young person can see their GP and if the GP feels that they need a mental health assessment, they can be referred to one of our mental health practitioners. There’s also Smarty’s for primary school children based on our ways of wellbeing – a safe place to play, grow, learn and develop friendships.
YPAS has built a reputation for innovative working. How do you work with children and young people to co-produce and co-design services?
Janine: We have a dedicated Participation Coordinator and a group called our Young Ambassadors. That’s a group of young people who have accessed our service, who are YPAS’s ‘Experts by Experience’. The Young Ambassadors are really at the heart of what we do and work with us really closely. Whether that’s interviews for new staff or things like our parent’s panel.
Last year we ran a national project called ‘Peer Action Collective’ where we employed 16 young people as ‘peer researchers’. They were paid a living wage and did some amazing research alongside the Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership (MVRP). Those young people were central to shaping the strategy and response to violence in the city. One of the recommendations was for a ‘family therapeutic service’ to work with the whole family in violence reduction.
That work led to a big investment from MVRP to create ‘Flourishing Families’. It proved that when you work with the whole family together you do see that lasting change. Young people who had experienced domestic abuse took part and our role was to bring local education teams and the young people together – access and stay in education and improve attendance. So that project was really, really special.
Unfortunately, the funding ended in October. It’s tough when you see a service making a big difference but you can’t continue to have that impact.
Lorna: Recently, we’ve been working alongside the ‘Enhanced Support Team’ at Alder Hey, who work with young people with complex needs. It’s a cohort involved in the criminal justice system. It’s difficult, but so worth it. Working in schools is another big part of what we do. Engaging the entire school community to be visible and build trust. It can be challenging, but we’ve been around for a long time and that means we can go into schools and work with everyone – young people, teachers, parents – and get to know them.
And your work with young people in LGBTQ+ community has been recognised nationally. Can you tell me a bit more about that?
Lorna: Yes, it’s called GYRO. It’s one of the oldest programmes in the country, I think it’s celebrating its 50th anniversary next year, and funded through the local authority and the Integrated Care Board (ICB). It’s just a great space to come and meet people and share experiences. You’ve got the opportunity to speak to our practitioners on a one-to-one as well within a safe group space.
There’s also TAY – ‘THE Action Youth’ – which is a trans group for young people, secondary school ages and above. It’s open to anybody and a really safe space for young people to come and explore that social aspect of their identity with other young people and practitioners.
We know from the work YPAS does, and research across the UK, that there’s a crisis in mental health services for children and young people. What plans have you got to meet this increasing demand?
Janine: We’re always thinking about how we remodel our services. Working in the voluntary sector we can move quickly and be agile in responding to the needs of children and young people. A big part of our approach and philosophy is partnership. We’re working with almost every organisation in the city. Take the Family Hubs operated by Liverpool City Council. They’re all over the city and it makes it much easier for young people and their families to talk to us if they’re already accessing services.
The plans to redevelop our central hub have got the whole team excited. We want that to be a building that the city deserves – a creative, welcoming, modern mental health hub where families can access services in a non-stigmatised environment. Because that’s what children, young people and their families are telling us. Somewhere they can feel safe.
We’re also so pleased to be working with Everton in the Community in the People’s Place. It really complements what we offer. There’s a big focus on physical activity that brings in young people and we can complement that with emotional well-being and mental health support.
In some ways the hardest thing is just to get people through the door, to make that first step. But if you’re already going to a family hub, it makes that first step a bit easier.
Lorna: Definitely. Something else we’ve been working on is The Mental Health Support Teams. Alder Hey has been delivering these in primary schools and recently we’ve been commissioned to deliver mental health support in secondary schools. For the past year, we’ve built up a great collaboration with Alder Hey and The Liverpool Learning Partnership to deliver mental health services into schools.
That means we can take the learning from primary into secondary schools, use our resources in a really efficient way and reduce duplication. It means families don’t have to tell their stories over and over again to different people. We’re just focussed on getting children and young people to the right person as soon as possible.
Just one final question about Children’s Mental Health Week. How important is it to raise awareness?
Janine: So important because it increases the profile of mental health services and encourages young people to get help and support. Alongside World Mental Health Day, it gives everyone a chance to talk about their mental health. We’re just human beings. We all have good days, we all have bad days, and it’s okay to just pick up the phone or come in and talk to someone.
We’d love to keep you updated on future Capacity Conversations, sign up to our mailing list. All the latest news right to your inbox.
We’re back for a second round of Social Climbers, a programme of bespoke support to help the region’s most promising social enterprises to make breakthroughs, grow their reach and deepen their impact. Want to know more? Email ailsa.horne@thisiscapacity.co.uk
