“Hello, my name is Lydia Hartland-Rowe and I am a child and adolescent psychotherapist at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust and the clinical lead for a Covid-19 staff support and wellbeing project we are offering for NHS and social care staff called ‘Together in Mind, a ‘sister’ website to this new resource for Camden, ‘Education in Mind’. I just want to say a little bit about why we are doing this, the background and the context, and then let you know how we hope the site can work for you.

‘Education in Mind’ has been created in response to Camden Council’s wish to provide something for all staff working in education at a time when the ongoing challenges of the COVID situation are about to present us all with another new set of experiences. Schools have of course been open throughout the crisis so far, but most children have been at home, and the transition for everyone, staff and students, is likely to present all kinds of new conversations, challenges, and feelings across the range of emotions. We know from the evidence and from experience at times of transition and potential trauma that leadership and collaboration are crucial, and we are really pleased that there is a welcome podcast to this Camden resource from Martin Pratt, the Deputy CEO for Camden Council.

We know that since the pandemic started to take effect, the offers of help of all kinds started to flood the internet – some of them helpful, some less so. So the website is aimed at trying to support staff working in education by gathering resources together that we think are likely to be meaningful and useful to you. There are two really important guiding principles for the site – the resources are meant to be for absolutely everybody working in an educational setting, whatever their role, and they should be easily accessed and relevant. The site is aimed at providing you with what you might need today in order to be able to come back tomorrow feeling that some support has helped or encouraged you in your work. And because we know that work and self are often very tangled up together for those of us working in the public sector, the support will sometimes be aimed at you and what you might need for yourself as an individual, and sometimes at what you might need for your work with children, young people or colleagues.

So how does it work? To keep the resources relevant, we are asking you to complete our ‘Weekly Check-in’, which will help us to know more about what the current issues are, and help us to design and provide resources that will fit with your experience. One of the things we know about the COVID situation, and other potentially traumatising events, is that things change over time, and so it’s really helpful to know about how you are more than just the once. We will be regularly uploading brief, relevant audio podcasts based on what you tell us, as well as a collection of regularly reviewed resources and links on themes that we are hearing about.

The site should be a kind of conversation, and so we also want to hear about any contributions you might have, or ideas for podcasts or other resources. The situation we are all in is a new and strange one, not without some opportunities for learning, but also the sources of anxiety, fear, disruption and a real pull on the need for compassion towards others and towards ourselves. We really hope that ‘Education in Mind’ can play a part in supporting your work and will be ready to learn and adapt as we go along to make sure of that. “