A NORTH-EAST school is making waves nationally after setting up its own well-being centre to offer therapeutic support to troubled pupils and their families.

The centre, housed in an annexe to Northfield Primary School, in Darlington, was built after the school successfully bid for Department for Education funding.

It has become the base for a range of counselling and therapeutic services which can be bought in on a sessional basis or as a package.

So far a total of 11 schools in Darlington and Hurworth have signed up to the scheme and interest is growing outside the region.

A unique feature is the Well-Being Centre's specially designed suite of rooms which include counselling space, a children's library, a meeting room, dining facilities and office space.

Northfield headteacher Nick Blackburn, who was recently invited to the London Borough of Wandsworth to talk about the project, explained the need for such services.

"We serve areas where there are a large number of vulnerable families who feel they cant cope with some of the pressures facing them," he said.

Concerned at the possibility of youngsters missing school or even being taken into care the school put together a detailed bid for funds from the Department for Education, which included monies from the Targeted Mental Health Service fund for schools.

"The money was to fund alternative mental health strategies and we also managed to get a DfE capital grant for the building. We are now using the TMHS money to fund the service," he added.

Mr Blackburn, who set up the service with trained counsellor, Dave Walker, said they had set up a registered charity called the DWT (Darlington Well-Being Trust) to provide a range of therapeutic services.

"We have a mixed group of service providers, including local authority staff and charity staff," said Mr Blackburn.

"The aim is to work with children to support their emotional well-being," the headteacher added.

"What the parents need is a therapeutic space to feel supported, where we can get to the bottom of issues and pull in the right services," he added.

Mr Blackburn said the project had been vital in holding on to trained counsellors in Darlington at a time of public spending cutbacks.

"We had five or six trained people and there was a possibility that would go but we managed to keep that expertise in the town."

He said the Northfields' Well-Being service is now working with 11 schools locally, with Mr Walker running the counselling side.

"Lots of people are interested in what we are doing and other local authorities have made enquiries."

Mr Blackburn said the surge in demand showed there was a need for such services and at a time of local authority cutbacks and a transfer of resources to academies, there was scope for academies to fund them.