We've gathered a selection of external resources to support the continuous development of the Services of a hub: types of support that hubs can provide for young people
The quality framework areas of focus in this section include:
- Counselling
- Wellbeing
- Drop-in and information, advice and guidance
- Youth work and outreach
- Physical health
You'll find a variety of external resources, including webinars, podcasts, guidebooks and toolkits.
All of the resources linked here will take you to third-party sites not managed by Youth Access. For Youth Access Principles resources, please visit youthaccess.org.uk/auroraresources.
1. Counselling
🌱 BACP counselling resources for community youth mental health services
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
These resources set out the core standards and practical guidance for delivering counselling with young people. They act both as a refresher for established services and a baseline for hubs or community organisations that are building counselling into their wider offer.
📓 Competence framework for counselling young people
Outlines the skills, knowledge, and values counsellors must demonstrate to work safely and effectively with children and young people (4–18 years). Helpful for services to audit staff competence, ensure all practitioners are appropriately registered, and evidence good practice to funders and partners.
📓 Counselling training curriculum
Describes the journey from initial training through advanced levels, showing what qualified practice looks like for counselling children and young people aged 4-18. Useful for services that may currently rely on volunteers or generalist staff, and want to plan a pathway towards employing qualified counsellors or supporting staff through CPD.
📓 School-based counselling
An essential guide for school leaders, mental health leads and commissioners. Clarifies what counselling is (and isn’t) in school or community settings, and how it complements wider provision. Supports services in defining counselling distinctly from youth work, advice, or mentoring, while embedding it within a joined-up hub offer.
🎬 Introduction to the ethical framework
Breaks down the BACP Ethical Framework in accessible language. Ideal as an orientation tool for wider staff teams (youth workers, managers, administrators) so they understand the professional standards counsellors are working to.
2. Wellbeing
📓 Mental health support teams for children and young people in education
Guidance on setting up and running Mental Health Support Teams in schools. Highlights EMHPs’ collaboration with teachers, counsellors, and youth workers to deliver structured, evidence-based interventions, improve access, and share responsibility for young people’s wellbeing.
🎬 Spotlight on childrens wellbeing practitioners
Psychological Professionals Network Midlands
Video with Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner Sophie Enever explaining her career path, Children Wellbeing Practitioners (CWP) training, and day-to-day role within a Mental Health Support Team in Lincolnshire.
🎬 Spotlight on education mental health practitioners
Psychological Professionals Network Midlands
Video where Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) Lydia Sherlock explains her role in school-based Mental Health Support Teams. Shows how CBT-informed interventions complement counselling and teaching, clarifying pathways and boosting collaborative support for students.
🎤︎︎ Centre for Mental Health series
This podcast series is a place where the Centre for Mental Health explore ideas around mental health, equality, and social justice. Join Thea Joshi as she talks to people with lived experience of mental health problems, people working in a specific area of mental health to discuss the fight for equality in mental health.
📓 Standards for the accreditation of children’s wellbeing practitioner and education mental health practitioner training programmes
The British Psychological Society
Sets out BPS standards for training Children’s Wellbeing Practitioners and Education Mental Health Practitioners. Covers programme design, ethics, governance, and professional development to ensure high-quality training, clear roles, and safe, evidence-based mental health interventions for young people.
3. Drop-in and information, advice and guidance
🖊 Working with young people in a drop-in environment: additional safeguarding considerations
Child Protection in Sport Unit (part of NSPCC)
This briefing paper on Working with young people in a drop-in environment has been developed to help anyone planning to work with children and young people in drop-in activities.
4. Youth work and outreach
🌱 Detached youth work toolkit
Toolkit for outreach in public spaces, with risk assessments, safety guidance, checklists, and supervision advice. Supports safe, voluntary, relationship-based youth work and staff wellbeing.
📓 National youth work curriculum
Framework setting out aims of education, empowerment, equality, and participation. Provides principles and models to help practitioners and policymakers design responsive, youth-centred and strength-based youth work.
5. Physical health
🖊 Healthspot: a youth-centered GP hub
A youth-friendly GP service co-located in a Tower Hamlets youth hub. Offers confidential mental and physical health support - including sexual health, drugs, and wellbeing - alongside youth worker guidance. Demonstrates how co-location improves trust, access, and holistic care.
🖊 London barbershops offering blood pressure checks
In 2021, Off The Record, LSBU, and Croydon BME Forum trained barbers to offer free blood pressure checks, improving health access and trust among Black and Asian men.
🌱 Drug, alcohol and mental health support
Online resource linking young people to integrated drug, alcohol, and mental health support. Provides easy referrals, online chats with recovery workers, and accessible information, emphasising confidentiality and seamless navigation of local services.
a note on external resources
Please note that these links will take you to a third-party site not managed by Youth Access. If you have any other resource recommendations that fellow youth advice and counselling services might find useful, let us know!
You can find external resources to support your work on areas of focus falling under Principles and Foundations below.