New animation of the THRIVE Framework for system change

The programme team were committed to developing the animation in partnership with children, young people, parents and carers, ensuring that their voice were at the heart.

The National i-THRIVE Programme and University College London co-funded the development of an animation to help children’s workforce professionals understand the underlying principles of the THRIVE Framework in a brief and accessible way.

The National i-THRIVE Community of Practice is made up of over 99 local sites that are working to implement the THRIVE Framework for system change (Wolpert et al., 2019) in their services for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. These sites are responsible for over 65% of the population of children and young people in England.

The THRIVE Framework for system change (Wolpert et al., 2019) was initially developed by colleagues from the Anna Freud Centre and the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust to enhance awareness of the full range of emotional health and wellbeing promoting practices for children, young people and their families across sectors.

Help and support has traditionally drawn on professionally led approaches within health, which is no longer tenable for a number of reasons. It is crucial to take into account the developing evidence that highlights the influence of social context on emotional health and wellbeing, the recognition that more health care does not necessarily mean better mental health outcomes, and the growing demand for a greater range of interventions that recognises the social contexts and individual preferences of individuals and their communities.

Greater health care provision as a response to rising mental health need is not sustainable, and it is therefore important to consider different ways to both help and support positive mental health and wellbeing, and prevent or address mental health difficulties.

The THRIVE Framework provides a set of principles for creating coherent and resource-efficient communities of mental health and wellbeing support for children, young people and families. It aims to talk about mental health and mental health help and support using a common language that everyone understands. The Framework is needs-led, whereby mental health needs are defined by children, young people and families in partnership with professionals through shared decision making. Needs are not based on severity, diagnosis or health care pathways.

The primary audience of the animation is intended to be children’s workforce professionals across the health, education, social care and voluntary sectors. The secondary audience are children, young people and their parents and carers, and Adult Mental Health professionals where the animation could be used to promote a shared language and support understanding across the system about the type of help or support a child, young person or their family have chosen to engage with.