Suffolk County Council has chosen Hamish & Milo as their preferred Emotional Wellbeing Intervention provider for primary schools

The Department for Education (DfE) Delivering Better Value (DBV) Programme aims to support local authorities to improve outcomes for children and young people using evidence-based interventions.

Suffolk County Council is one of 55 local authorities to be awarded a Delivering Better Value grant. The DBV Programme in Suffolk, which runs until December 2025, has adopted a holistic approach to supporting its schools, as part of its graduated response and in consultation with Suffolk school leaders and local parent/carer groups. It offers a range of academic interventions, as well as support for Emotional Wellbeing, Speech and Language Development and promotion of Pupil Voice. The DBV Steering Group approved Hamish & Milo as their preferred Emotional Wellbeing intervention for Suffolk Primary Schools in August 2024. Using part of the DBV Grant, the DBV team are offering to fund £700 towards any Suffolk Primary school wishing to purchase Hamish & Milo.

In addition to the part-funding, the Suffolk DBV programme team are offering schools a complete package of support to secure successful implementation. Their mission is to make a positive difference to children and young people for Suffolk; they are committed to working in partnership with schools and services, making the interventions both effective and sustainable once the DBV Programme has finished. Their team, supervised by Senior Educational Psychologist Dr Jill Griffiths, supports schools not only to deliver interventions successfully but to measure the impact at both child/school/county level.

Hamish & Milo are also dedicated to improving children’s mental health, wellbeing and social and emotional development through evidence-based programmes, resources, training, and software. Their comprehensive range of evidence-based programmes supports a whole school graduated response to help the rising numbers of children with SEMH and SEND needs and research is demonstrating the positive impact that Hamish & Milo programmes are having on children’s wellbeing, behaviour, attendance, and learning.

“From the start, we knew that finding the right intervention to help Suffolk primary schools support children’s emotional wellbeing, through early intervention was a priority. There is lots of great practice in Suffolk, especially the work of ELSAs, Inclusion Facilitators, SEMH Teachers and CAMHS Teams but schools wanted more support with early help as part of their graduated response.

We wanted to use the DBV grant to help schools further, preventing children from needing access to more Specialist services in future, using targeted, small group interventions. We wanted the package to be backed by strong academic evidence and research, enabling schools to have access to something that they would find easy to implement and could deliver time and again.

We knew Suffolk primary schools wanted support with things like reducing anxiety, supporting young people with transition, helping children better understand and embrace their neurodiversity and giving young people access to an emotional curriculum, so they could learn life-long strategies. A package that made it easy for schools to involve families so they understood how their child was being helped and could support a child from home too, was equally important to us. Hamish & Milo met all our requirements and more. Suffolk primary schools that have seen all that Hamish & Milo includes have been overwhelmingly positive about it, and we look forward to seeing the positive outcomes for Suffolk children who use it.”

Louise Babbs, Delivering Better Value (DBV) Programme Manager, Children and Young People’s Directorate, Suffolk County Council

The Hamish & Milo DBV package includes the programmes, impact software, training, and supervision to fully support participating schools and will work alongside the Suffolk DBV programme team to ensure programmes are implemented successfully, and that all pastoral staff and schools feel well supported.

Clare Williams, Hamish & Milo author, and creator commented:

“We are totally committed to providing the best support we can for the adults working with children and to ensure they are celebrated and valued. The Hamish & Milo team working in partnership with the DBV Team in Suffolk, includes supervision and CPD training, as well as our software Navigator that will help showcase this important work and celebrate the impact and improved outcomes for Suffolk’s children.”

For more information please contact

Louise Babbs, Raising Achievement for Suffolk: Delivering Better Value (DBV) Programme Manager, Children and Young People’s Directorate at Suffolk County Council using email DBV@suffolk.gov.uk

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