Frequently Asked Questions about the ECHO service

From 3 August 2026, there will be two services for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing in Warwickshire instead of one. This will improve the mental health support for children and young people and their families in Warwickshire.

CWWMind will lead the service providing advice, guidance and support to get help early on, funded by WCC. The early support service will be in partnership with Anna Freud, Guardian Ballers, Lifespace Trust and Relationships Coventry & Warwickshire. These partners will work together and operate as one service, with each partner delivering different services that will provide children, young people and their families with an improved variety of mental health support.

CWPT will continue to deliver a specialist service for CYP who require more intensive mental health support, funded by the ICB.

Both services will also be adopting the Thrive framework going forwards. Thrive is a way of providing mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people. Instead of making people wait for a formal diagnosis or severe illness to get help, support is provided is based on what the person needs at that exact moment.

From August 2026, families already referred to or being supported by Rise will continue to be supported under the new services.

Rise will no longer exist and is being replaced by the two new services.

The name of the new CWWMind service is ECHO, which stands for Every Child Heard and Offered support. Suggested names for the service were developed with young people and then submitted for a public vote.

The specialist mental health service provided by CWPT will be known as the Children and Young People Services – Mental Health.

WCC and ICB will hold quarterly performance meetings with the services to assure good service delivery. The information collected through these meetings and feedback collected by both services shared by their service users will be used to monitor how well the services are meeting the needs of children and young people in Warwickshire.  Families with experience of using the service (Experts by Experience) will also be involved in the implementation and ongoing monitoring of the performance.

If more specialist support is needed, there should be no change in accessing the specialist mental health services delivered by CWPT.  For referrals made into either service, professionals will make sure individuals reach the correct service for their needs.

ECHO will support children and young people living in Warwickshire aged 0-18 years, and also those age 18-25 years old who have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP), who need support to:

• Address early emerging mental health needs
• Improve wellbeing
• Support development of emotional regulation

The service will provide early emotional wellbeing and mental health support to children and young people and their families/carers for a range of concerns including but not limited to:

• Emotional regulation 
• Low self-esteem 
• Low mood 
• Anxiety management 
• Anger awareness 
• Loss 
• Self-harm (for coping) 
• Disordered eating 
• Communication and relationships 
• Understanding sensory needs 
• Understanding trauma 
• Attachment -based parenting 
• Protective behaviours/self-care 
• Sleep care 
• Routines 
• Transitions 
• Practical parenting/carer support 
• Parental/carer relationship breakdown 
• Exam fear/stress 
• Social isolation, friendship issues, loneliness 

CWWMind will continue to deliver emotional wellbeing groups, 1:1 support, school assemblies and workshops as well as therapeutic/counselling sessions for all children. Counselling will continue to be provided through Relationships Coventry and Warwickshire. 

The new ECHO service is expanding this existing support to include new features such as waiting list support, community drop-in sessions, training for professionals, parents and carers.

All the partners under ECHO have strong relationships and connections with other services in the community, which will make connecting children, young people and families/carers to other services a more seamless process.

CWWMind also has a variety of other services which may benefit the diverse needs of children, young people, parents and carers. More details can be found on CWW Mind’s website

CWPT will continue to provide mental health services for more complex mental health needs under the name Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Support will include, but not limited to:

• Suffering from severe or persistent conditions e.g. eating disorders, self-harm or severe depression
• Having persistent emotional challenges

CWPT will also still be delivering Adult Mental Health services.

This table shows how ECHO and Children and Young People – Mental Health complement one another:

Both services (ECHO and Children and Young People – Mental Health) will adopt the THRIVE Framework.

Mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people in Warwickshire will be organised so that people get support based on what they need at that exact moment, rather than waiting for a formal diagnosis or for problems to get worse.

Working under a THRIVE Framework will help people to avoid long waits – problems don’t have to escalate before you can get help. It’s a team effort so young people and their families will work with professionals to decide what help they need, rather than being told what to do. There is no wrong way to access services e.g. anyone a young person talks to (like a teacher, GP or youth worker) can point them in the right direction.

The THRIVE Framework has four stages to help people to thrive:

1. Getting Advice and Signposting
2. Getting Help
3. Getting More Help
4. Getting Risk Support

For more information on the THRIVE framework and how it works in practice, visit https://implementingthrive.org/about-us/the-thrive-framework/

ECHO will support children and young people with the first two stages of THRIVE: ‘Getting Advice and Signposting’ and ‘Getting Help’:

1. Getting Advice and Signposting: Support for children, young people, and families with mild or temporary difficulties, or those with longer term issues who are managing independently and prefer self-support or community resources. Families will be provided with the information and guidance to find their own solutions.
2. Getting Help: Those who need further support will be provided with 1:1 sessions, group support or a range of therapies.

The “Getting More Help” and “Getting Risk Support” stages will be delivered by CWPT and are specialist services providing intensive, targeted care for individuals experiencing complex, acute, or chronic mental illnesses.

Both services are equally important parts of the mental health support on offer for children and young people in Warwickshire so that families can access the right support, at the right time. 

CWWMind and CWPT will work together on an ongoing basis to ensure there is a seamless pathway of support offered to children and young people entering both services.

Any referrals received up until the 31 July 2026 will be managed through the current mental health services.

Any children and young people who are still being supported after 31 July 2026 will continue to receive needs-led support from one of the two services going forward.

We aim for the impact of the service changes to be minimal as the young people and their families will continue to be provided with a mental health service that is suitable for their needs.

Whilst every effort will be made to keep children and young people with the same support worker, there may be instances where this might not be possible.  However, this will be discussed with the family, and support will be provided to help the transition over to a new support worker to minimise any impact.  

Any child or young person whose mental health needs escalate will be supported to access the right service to help them. There will be no need for a new referral. 

If a child or young person’s needs increase while being supported by ECHO, then professionals will speak to CWPT and decide if they should be supported by the more specialist service instead or be supported in a different way. If it looks like a child or young person is escalating to crisis level, professionals from ECHO will work with the family to ensure they are receiving the support they need. 

 If a child or young person is not currently being supported, urgent, crisis support will still be provided by CWPT. 

Anyone of any age, including parents and carers, can also text CWHOPE to 85258 to start a conversation with a mental health professional at any time, day or night. 

If you or someone you are with is experiencing a mental health crisis, whatever their age, call 111 and select the mental health option.  Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  

Call 999 in a medical emergency – when someone is seriously ill or injured and their life is at risk. 

Yes, we are committed to working with the whole family.  Being a parent or carer can be hard, and help is at hand when challenges are faced. 

ECHO recognises that a child, or young person cannot always be supported on their own so there are dedicated parent and carer practitioners to provide advice, guidance and practical support. 

Additionally, the ECHO service has an experienced team who will work with parents, carers, young people and the wider family to access support and develop a plan that works for each individual family.

This may include support from a practitioner to provide practical ideas and coping strategies, help to access other services, information about helping your child to access therapy sessions or group/peer support opportunities to access other services for those with a higher level of need. 

There are also plans to create online toolbox sessions and digital resources, which will be accessible via the website. 

We will ensure that children, young people and their parents/carers are treated with compassion, respect and dignity, without stigma or judgment.  

Anyone can self-refer into ECHO, including children and young people, their families or professionals. To access support delivered by ECHO and to see what the service has to offer:

• Visit echosupport.org.uk. The website will support parents, carers and professionals with the service and help to direct self and professional referrals and to signpost other aspects of Warwickshire Children and Young People’s mental health support.
• Phone: 024 7663 1835
• Email: cyp@echosupport.org.uk 

Referrals for more complex support delivered by CAMHS (CWPT) can only be made by professionals such as professionals from ECHO, a GP, school or social worker.

The ECHO website will hold the most up-to-date information available: www.echosupport.org.uk.

Information and updates will also be shared on Instagram, Facebook and X, just search Echo Support Team.

As ECHO is a new service it may take some time for everything to be working as well as we would hope. Once the ECHO service has launched, families who have any concerns should raise them with CWWMind by contacting the CYP team on:

Telephone: 024 7663 1835 or

Email: cyp@echosupport.org.uk.

If there are still concerns, then these can be raised through Warwickshire County Council’s complaints procedures. 

If you have concerns about any of the decisions made, including discharge or access to support, you may wish to raise these so professionals can look into this with you and advise on next steps:  

• ECHO (CWW Mind) complaints process: https://cwwmind.org.uk/feedback/  
• Children and Young People’s Mental Health Service (CWPT) complaints process: https://www.covwarkpt.nhs.uk/queries-compliments-and-complaints 
• WCC complaints process: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/customerservice/complaints-appeals-feedback  
• You can also provide anonymous feedback to Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice – www.padlet.com/warwickshireparentcarervoice/feedback.

If you wish to be involved in shaping the ECHO service, you can contact the following below:

• For parents and carers please contact Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice using the email hello@warwickshireparentcarervoice.org
• For children and young people contact Warwickshire County Council using the email childfriendly@warwickshire.gov.uk
• You can contact CWW Mind and the Echo Partners directly to ask about getting involved by emailing cyp@echosupport.org.uk