Targeted support and mentoring

Bright Paths strive to enhance children’s mental health, behaviour and emotional wellbeing.

Our purpose is to enable children and young people to access the support they need when they need it, enabling them to build lifelong coping skills and thrive.

Mental health problems affect 1 in 6 children in the UK

It is estimated that 60-70% of children and young people suffering from a mental health difficulty have not accessed appropriate intervention at a young enough age.

Bright Paths

Working towards a brighter tomorrow… today.

Targeted social, emotional and mental health support for young people in the UK

Bright Paths provide a range of interventions to support the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children and young people. By working closely with parents, carers and schools, our holistic approach nurtures lasting behavioural changes.

We can help in many situations, including supporting those with emerging mental health concerns, low self-esteem or presenting with challenging behaviour.

Being a child-centred organisation, our team pride ourselves on building bespoke intervention plans to suit individual circumstances and ability.

As a result of our mentorship and support, the young people we work with typically experience a steady increase in:

  • Resilience and self-esteem.
  • Improved emotional literacy.
  • Decreased worries, stress and anxiety.
  • Better communication and social skills.
  • Stronger friendships.
  • Mental health awareness
Find out more about our process
Home Schools

Bright Paths support children, young people and families

Bright Paths Support CIC provide targeted emotional well-being support for school and college-aged children. Our team provide support nationwide (remotely) or at the child’s school, a local community venue or, in some instances, the family home.

Our outreach service is available to schools and young people in Hertfordshire (Hertsmere Boroughs & Watford), Central Bedfordshire, Luton, Bedford and surrounding areas. If you are outside this area or are a family in need of support then we offer online targeted mentoring and interventions.

Each one-to-one session is tailored to the young person’s individual needs. Our holistic approach is designed to promote long-term positive behaviour change.

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Schools

Bright Paths targeted intervention in schools

At Bright Paths, we specialise in aiding young people that present challenging behaviour in addition to providing emotional wellbeing interventions. We are also experienced in helping students with neurological disorders such as ASD and ADHD.

Our interventions are tailored to meet the exact requirements of each student, and we employ a wide range of proven strategies that can typically:

  • Improve emotional literacy and wellbeing.
  • Develop resilience and self-esteem.
  • Break down barriers to learning.
  • Reduce fixed term and permanent exclusions.
Find out more

Bright Paths 2022/2023 Impact Statement

We take great pride in the remarkable impact achieved this year in supporting the emotional well-being of local children and young people. The tremendous results we’ve witnessed reflect the effectiveness of our services, as we witness children not only building resilience and self-esteem but also developing life-long skills to manage their emotional well-being. We’re thrilled to share the success of our efforts with you!

  • 94% of children found our support helpful or very helpful *
  • 90.4% of children felt support would make a difference in their lives *
  • 78% of children showed improvement across three or more subsets in pre/post-SDQ scores
  • 92% of children demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in the emotional section of pre/post SDQ scores

* Figures based on children and young people who fully engaged and completed a student evaluation form in their last session.

Thank you for your ongoing support. Our students actively engage in and enjoy their sessions. Most importantly, they emerge with a more positive outlook and improved communication of their feelings. A particular shoutout to Aiden, who found the ‘push the wall’ coping technique immensely beneficial. It’s helped him begin to talk about and manage overwhelming feelings without resorting to destructive behaviours.
Deputy head, local primary school, 2023
BrightPaths have been providing our Outreach mentors since the start of the academic year, and we have found their work and support for the pupils to be priceless. The team are very easy to work with and highly professional in their manner with staff – especially with the Heads of Year who have appreciated their input and expertise with certain pupils. The continuity of the support from BrightPaths with the school and its pupils is vital to our student wellbeing. Thank you for all your hard work.
Head Teacher – Local Secondary School
We know you are not councillors and didn’t ever claim to be, but the connection and difference you made in Sam’s life in just six weeks is better than the counselling she has all year.
Pastoral Leader from a Hertfordshire School
The guidance and support you offered when creating Ronnie’s PSP’s has been invaluable. We were able to intertwine the strategies from intervention sessions and get both the student, family and other teachers on board and working collectively.
Head of House from a Hertfordshire School.
BrightPaths Support has had a tremendous impact on our children and has been a fantastic addition to the external provision we offer. They personalise the support for each student and conduct assessments, allowing us to demonstrate impact and justify the use of our budget. I cannot recommend Tasha highly enough.
Primary School Class Teacher – Hertfordshire
Tasha has been working with my family and me for approx six months. She has been an absolute pleasure to have. She is reliable and supportive and goes way beyond her role to help out. She’s very experienced and highly knowledgeable and will always recommend solutions that suit the dynamics of our family. I highly recommend her. Thank you.
Parent of year 6 child – Hertfordshire
I like it when Tasha comes to work with me. It makes me feel good and fun, and I like to talk about my feelings and why I get angry a lot.
Year 5 ADHD Student Bedfordshire
In an excellent group workshop from the team at BrightPaths, the children were engaged and enjoyed the whole experience. The workshop eased some of their anxieties surrounding moving on to their new schools and allowed them to vocalise their worries and work through them.
Class 6 teacher Primary school – Hertfordshire
Thank you so much for your ongoing support. The children actively engage and enjoy their sessions, but most importantly, they all come away feeling more positive and able to communicate their feelings better.
Inclusion manager from Milton Keynes
Tasha is an outstanding practitioner. Her knowledge, coaching style and organisation of sessions is excellent. She fostered strong relationships with all pupils, and her behaviour management was also excellent. The sessions enabled children to feel happy and confident whilst developing their emotional regulation, resilience and even behaviour in some instances. BrightPaths have been a valued part of the school staff team, and I recommend them.
DepHead – Hertfordshire

Funders and Partners of BrightPaths

Bright Paths is a community interest company; this means that 100% of our profits are invested back into the company to ensure we can keep providing the very best quality and accessible service to the children and young people in the UK. 

Thank you to our current funders and partners; more information regarding specific projects can be found here.

To donate and support our cause, please click here.

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Get in touch

If you are responsible for the emotional wellbeing of a child or young person, contact us now for a no-obligation consultation to see how we can best help.

What can affect children’s mental health, behaviour and emotional wellbeing?

Meet Sam, a 15-year-old student from Bedford. She has never met her birth father, and her mother is desperate to find a way to support her daughter’s mental health and emotional wellbeing but doesn’t know where to start. 

Sam’s diet consists of mainly processed food, soft fizzy drinks, burgers and sweets, mostly because it’s easier than having arguments each mealtime. 

There is no regulated time for her to be in bed and asleep.

She lacks confidence at school, and though it has never been diagnosed, she shows all the signs of having ADHD – She seems unable to sit still and concentrate on any one task; she is constantly forgetting things and often acts without thinking first. 

Sam is seen as a disruptive influence and is ‘tolerated’ by teachers. She can be prone to bouts of aggression. She is used to ‘coping’ on her own and finds it hard to trust anyone. She feels anxious whenever she is asked to participate in class activities and acts out to avoid being selected.

Since Covid, Sam has been unable to see her friends. What there was of a relationship with her mother has deteriorated. Sam feels mentally trapped and is desperate for an escape… 

Picture Sam in your mind. Do you know anyone like her?

Luckily, Sam is fictional, but there are millions of children across the UK (in fact, one in every six) who can relate to some – if not all – of Sam’s life.  Unfortunately, finding support for young people like sam can be difficult.

Roughly 70% of children and adolescents who experience mental health problems have not received sufficient (if any) help at an appropriately early age. Sadly, this isn’t surprising as often the criteria are too strict, and waiting lists are too long for specialised services. When surveyed, only 10 % of GPs were confident that a referral to NHS Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) would result in treatment. 

We left Sam’s story (above) at a crossroads. She could spiral down, developing unhealthy coping mechanisms such as taking drugs, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol and mixing with the wrong crowd. As a result of her lowered resilience and lack of support, Sam may develop a mental illness such as depression. Sadly, 1 in 3 adult mental health conditions relate directly to adverse childhood experiences.

or… 

She could benefit from one to one targeted intervention. She could realise that, in fact, she is a gifted artist and, with appropriate support and encouragement, can contribute to class activities. She could even learn to trust others and express her feelings in a safe environment, rebuilding her damaged self-esteem. 

It is because of children and young people like Sam that Bright Paths exist. 

Bright Paths are a dedicated children’s mental health service working with children, young people and their families to help nurture their social, emotional and mental health needs.

We also work with children who present with challenging behaviour and specialise in supporting those with ADHD or ASD struggling in mainstream schools.

How can I improve my child’s mental health? If you need immediate support or general advice, please click here for helpful phone numbers, websites and guidance.

If your child would benefit from 1:1 support, consulting, or guidance, we can help.

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Sam profile photo