Background 

Inspire operates at a tier 2 level in partnership with a number of agencies and professionals to meet the needs of young people and their families. By fully involving the young people and where possible and appropriate their families, positive attitudes, behaviour and aspirations are encouraged which assists in them developing resilience to overcome the challenges that they may face now and in the future, therefore improving outcomes.

Inspire is a multi-disciplinary team of youth workers and assistant psychologists working holistically alongside each young person to help them achieve their goals. Inspire aims to empower and promote the independence and confidence of each young person while increasing positive coping strategies and resilience. Inspire aims to address the reasons why a young person is engaging in self-harm rather than just dealing with the resultant behaviour. 

Referrals can be made by any health professional e.g. CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service), School nurse, G.P’s, hospital staff etc. From 1st July 2023 to 30th June 2024 inspire received 181 Referrals for one-to-one support for young people in Wrexham and 83 referrals for young people in Flintshire. 

One to one work consists of voluntary engagement of around 8 individualised sessions at venues of the young person’s choice, focusing on what young people would like to achieve and what they feel would help them at that time. 

Support may include; 

• introducing / increasing social activities
• working on; 
  • building confidence and self-esteem
  • coping strategies
  • alternatives to self-harm
  • sleep hygiene
  • relationships
  • assertiveness
  • anger
  • graded exposure for example to use public transport and other areas that may assist the young person. 

The team also provide encouragement and support for young people and their families to engage with or access universal services and aim to prevent the need for escalation to statutory services in the future. Referrals to specialist services are also completed as and when needed. By working with young people until their 19th birthday, this allows inspire to support young people in their transition to adult services, and also in transitions from school or college into work or higher education.

Diversionary activities are offered to young people who are appropriate for and who would benefit from group activities. They are an opportunity for the young people to reduce social isolation, and to increase their confidence and self-esteem in a safe environment with support from staff as required. Young people have the opportunity to take part in activities that they may not otherwise have the chance or confidence to do. Young people are able to access these activities while open to us and also after closure for as long as they are within inspire’s age range.

Inspire complete daily ward visits in Wrexham Maelor Hospital to all young people aged 11-18 whatever their reason for. Inspire offer to lend resources such as DVD's, PSP's, D.S.'s for distraction and they also provide activity packs and info packs (leaflets with information on a variety of topics and services for young people that they can access in their area). Inspire can also spend time with patients if required. From 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024 inspire saw 280 young people on hospital wards. 

Inspire recognise the benefits of early intervention and they deliver informal education sessions to schools, youth clubs and other groups across the Wrexham and Flintshire area. These focus on topics such as emotional health and wellbeing, exam stress and body image, but they can also be tailored to meet the needs of a specific group on request. Inspire can also deliver smaller targeted groups where there is an identified need. From 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024 Inspire delivered 137 sessions to 2,749 young people. 

Impact 

In February 2021, an evaluation of the project was undertaken. Across quantitative and qualitative data informing the evaluation, there is a consistent view of Inspire contributing to significant outcomes for young people. Key outcomes include: 

• Improving confidence and self-esteem of young people. 
• Reducing incidents of self-harm and hospital admissions for reasons of self-harm 
• Equipping young people with the know-how to manage risk. 
• Engagement. For example, in group activities, with education and employment and interacting with key services. 
• Overcoming phobic impulses and anxieties that limit day-to-day functioning and progression. 
• Better managing emotions and better relationships. For example, with family. For the smaller part of the caseload involving young people who also have drug, alcohol or substance misuse needs and histories of antisocial behaviour/offending, young people also mainly implement positive changes to reduce these problem behaviours that they attribute to engaging with Inspire. 

As a result of these positive impacts, a strongly conservative costing analysis suggests that Inspire contributes a positive return on investment, with £1.87 in direct fiscal savings for every £1 spent. There are caveats to this type of analysis, but this gives a feel for impact on public sector savings.

What young people said about the project 

“I was in a bad place at the start and wanted to end it all. By working with inspire they helped me realise there is good in life”.

“Thank you so much for all u did for me (worker) and I cannot believe how much I’ve grown from before I met u from feeling so isolated and nearly given up to being able to get out with confidence and being able to feel a lot happier and also making me want to get out more and doing more things which if u told me 6 months ago I wouldn’t of thought all that was possible, and thank you so much for helping me manage my emotions helping me what to do if I have a panic attack that’s helped me so much, like getting out the house for that hour to talk about my problems and having a drink of hot chocolate made me alot happier like as soon as the session finished I would always look forward to do it again. Thank you so much (worker) these sessions have been the best”. 

“Before inspire I couldn’t see the light, everything was just dark and then inspire showed me the light and I felt better”.

“Inspire saved my life”

“They helped me cope with school, helped me talk and helped me feel much more positive about many things.”

“Visiting my home was great because some days I felt like I didn’t want to go out. I found it really easy to talk to Inspire.”

To find out more about the project please contact inspire@wrexham.gov.uk