Posted on 12th November 2025
Gateshead Children and Young People Mental Health Service: Achieve You’re Welcome Accreditation
Gateshead Children and Young People Mental Health Service have been awarded the GOV.UK You're Welcome': standards for improving the quality of, and access to, health and well-being services for young people.
Developed by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) the standards set to ensure services are accessible, young person friendly and delivered in a way that supports young people using or considering using local health services for the first time.
The team systematically evaluate service provision and ways to improve the accessibility of services; the development of new & improved approaches and young people’s ability to be actively involved in their own care, with the overarching aim to ensure young people have input on the design and delivery of local Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services.
Staff routinely consult and work alongside side the Trust’s Young Persons group led by the patient experience team who attend clinics, provide feedback on delivery of services and provide recommendations on how to make services young person friendly.
''It is important to us that young people feel confident in accessing our services and being part of their own health care. This can be achieved by making young people feel welcome and services being youth friendly. This guidance sets out 8 standards and associated quality criteria for youth-friendly services that have been developed, reviewed and validated in partnership with the Trust Young People’s Group. The standards aim to improve the experiences of young people in relation to both the quality and access to health and well-being services. We are extremely grateful for the support from the Trust Young Person group in visiting our services and providing us feedback on how we can adapt and improve service for young people. It is important that young people feel comfortable and supported when using health services by listening to young people and making the changes they’ve asked for helps us ensure we are delivering services to best support young people''
The criterion for the accreditation is set out by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, who provide a framework in a set of eight service evaluation criteria for service delivery, design and on how resources are allocated and used – helping to promote better health outcomes for service users within the local population.
Young people are entitled to receive appropriate health care wherever they access it, in a range of community settings and platforms readily available for service users. The standards lay out principles to support health services – both in the community and in hospitals – to ‘get it right’ and become young people friendly.
This is a great achievement for services and we thank the Trust's Young Persons group and Patient Experience team for supporting us through our accreditation.
For further information about You're Welcome Standards please click here
