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I am writing a letter in support of the Men and Boys' Health Team which is part of the Bradford District Care Trust. I have been receiving counselling and behavioural therapy from Peter Westwood who is a specialist in mental health care, the support I have received over the last six months has been immense. The care and attention to detail has been brilliant and has really given me a platform from which I can move forward and hopefully find a log term solution for better health. The level of competence and knowledge that I have received during our interactions has been of a high standard and the environment created by Peter gives me huge confidence to share and express my feeling and thoughts. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Peter Westwood for his dedication, support and expertise during the time he has worked with me.

Recently (since Sept 2013) I have been seeking counselling as I have personally gone through a marriage breakdown and personal trauma in the last 18 months. I have never had counselling before and wasn't sure what to expect. The counselling has immensely helped me to cope with my present ongoing situation. When I started I had problems sleeping, anxiety, panic attacks and had lost considerable weight. The sessions have helped me to re-focus, cope with anxiety and help me to sleep better. My physical and mental health has improved, I am less anxious, have managed to put weight back on and recently for the first time I joined a gym. The Men's Health Team provides a valuable service, it is flexible and was tailored to meet my needs. It's a service I cannot get anywhere within the NHS...

I would like to take this opportunity to say how much we value the Men and Boys’ Health Team at Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College. They have worked incredibly hard with our students and had success at all levels. We currently have Peter Westwood who attends weekly and speaks with approximately 6 boys that would like support with smoking cessation, anxiety and stress, or are struggling with bereavement, sexual health and sexuality as a whole. Our students have commented on how much easier it is to talk to a male and would not have come had we not had this facility. Without this support we could have had young men that continued to struggle with health issues that would not have been identified and thus supported. Similarly with the work that Peter has done, we have successfully reduced the number of students smoking and this can have a positive impact across a year group. Peter has also been working on how to support our 6th form with a sexual health clinic, which is again something that we are incredibly keen to support. Peter and the Men/Boys Health Team are a vital part of Buttershaw’s support network. It would concern me and the support network within Buttershaw if we did not have a Men’s team that we could turn to for advice and somewhere that our students could turn to that was guaranteed to be a male friendly environment. Once again, I would like to reiterate how appreciative we are of the work that Peter and the team have done.

Pete supported a pupil with significant Social and Emotional difficulties. 
The pupil he supported flourished during the time Pete worked with him. He was very positive about his sessions and school saw a great improvement in his general wellbeing and attitude towards learning. Pete was reliable and provided effective feedback to school about the work he was undertaking at regular review points. We would definitely use Pete's services again"

Peter Westwood has been working with a number of our young people over the last academic year and into this year. 
Each of those 12 children has had times where they have been at risk of exclusion or have had a social, emotional and behavioural problem. It is our opinion that the intervention that Pete puts in place for these children which is different to that traditionally offered by the primary school, has ensured increased participation and inclusion. One of our children reported that he "knew he was seeing Pete on a Monday morning and it got his week off to a good start." He also meets with parents. 
During times of reduced budgets we continue to value the service that Pete offers and count it as one of our most important interventions.

Pete has provided counselling services every Wednesday morning at (Bradford primary school) for the past two years. To support the success of this, I have shared pertinent information with him and, on occasion, he has met with parents, both prior to and during the counselling period. He provides feedback as to his perceptions of the benefit or otherwise of the sessions to the child.  The children he has worked with have had many different issues, often linked to their lives outside school. These issues have required bespoke support, sometimes looking at strategies they could use or ways to deal with their feelings, beyond that possible in a class or school situation. 
Pete works hard to develop trusting relationships with his clients: some of whom have become very proficient at playing the harmonica as this is one of his routes to building that trust. Some of his clients have ongoing, long term support whilst others have benefitted from a couple of terms and more spread ‘touching base’ meetings. Whatever the period of counselling, the children have mostly made good strides to being in better places to deal with the issues that were preventing them socialising or focusing on their learning, some of which could have led to exclusion or alternative provision. 
It has been a benefit that Pete is not part of our staff; the children know they are not likely to ‘bump into’ him around and about in school at any point in the day as they would with any of our in-house support systems, which means they can talk to him freely. The children know what they say to Pete stays with Pete - unless it is a safeguarding issue in which case he informs us.  I feel this service has been beneficial to our children.

Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College

Professor Alan White - Centre for Men's Health, Institute for Health and Wellbeing, Faculty of Health & Social Sciences, Leeds Metropolitan University

Helen Hart - Professional & Practice Development Team, Bradford and Airedale TPCT

Assistant Headteacher at a Primary School in Bradford

Assistant Headteacher at a School in Bradford

Deputy Headteacher at a School in Bradford

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