£1 million donation to Anna Freud for online wellbeing service announced
Grant from The Julia Rausing Trust continues legacy of support for early intervention programme for schools and colleges.
Anna Freud will receive a £1 million donation from The Julia Rausing Trust for an online mental wellbeing service for schools and colleges.
The charity – which has been supporting children and young people for over 70 years – is one of the first beneficiaries of the Trust, which this month announced plans to donate £100 million to UK charities and organisations in its first year. The generous grant builds on previous donations to the programme from The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust.
The donation will support Anna Freud’s Schools and Colleges Early Support Service (SCESS), which is delivered by expert practitioners to schools and colleges in England and Scotland. The programme takes a whole-school approach – which involves all parts of the school or colleges working together - and is for students aged 11 to 25 experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties. It also offers parents, carers and staff support.
The service was developed by Anna Freud during the Covid-19 pandemic to provide access to online support when young people’s mental health needs were exacerbated by lockdowns and disruptions to normal school access and routines.
Initially delivered to school and colleges for free at the point of use, the service recently became a partially paid-for programme to ensure its sustainability. To keep the service as accessible as possible, it is subsidised by Anna Freud including through grants.
Jaime Smith MBE, Director of Schools at Anna Freud, said:
“This staggering donation in memory of Julia Rausing will be life-changing for many young people. It will allow us to deliver our Schools and Colleges Early Support Service - which has benefited thousands of young people, parents, carers and school staff since launching in 2020 – to even more schools and colleges across England and Scotland.
“Julia Rausing was dedicated to improving the mental wellbeing of children and young people. This generous grant continues her much appreciated support of this early intervention service, which provides evidence-based support for students experiencing difficulties with their mental health before problems become more entrenched.”
Schools and colleges can find out more about SCESS and register for the service here.
About Anna Freud
Anna Freud is a mental health charity and we’ve been supporting children and young people for over 70 years. We listen to and learn from their diverse voices and integrate this with learnings from our science and practice to develop and deliver mental health care. This holistic approach has world-changing potential – our training, schools support, networks, partnerships and resources equip those who impact children and young people’s lives with the knowledge and skills to support their mental health - https://www.annafreud.org/
About The Julia Rausing Trust
The Julia Rausing Trust has been established in memory of the late British philanthropist Julia Rausing, who died in 2024.
The Julia Rausing Trust will be donating £100million to charities and organisations in its first year making it one of the largest charitable funds in the UK.
Julia Rausing co-founded The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust in 2014. She was widely known for her unwavering commitment to philanthropy and her impactful contributions to a wide range of UK charitable causes. She was instrumental in building the Julia and Hans Rausing Trust into one of the largest philanthropic funds in the country, donating £400 million to causes across Health, Welfare, and the Arts, primarily within the UK.