Children’s Mental Health Week 2026: Reshaping Systems for Belonging

10th February 2026

As we move through Children’s Mental Health Week 2026 with a theme of This Is My Place, Place2be invite all of us to reflect on what it would take for our systems to actively help children and young people feel like they belong. As service designers, researchers, evaluators and systems thinkers who work to redesign and reshape systems so that they work better for children and young people, this invitation is so pertinent to our work around children and young people’s mental health.

Children’s sense of belonging is shaped by the systems they move through every day:

·      In classrooms where they wonder whether they are seen or heard;

·      In youth spaces they hope to feel connection in, not merely attend;

·      In family settings shaped by economic pressures; and

·      In neighbourhoods that can offer connection or isolation.

The systems children live, learn and play in, and how these systems interact with each other, all contribute to their sense of belonging. Feeling like they belong – or like they don’t - shapes so much about a child or young person’s sense of self, their confidence and how safe they might feel expressing themselves or challenging norms.

A place-based example: Kailo

Kailo is a place-based research and design initiative working to transform mental health for a new generation. Acting as a catalyst, Kailo harnesses the energy and influence of young people, communities and public services to co-design effective, timely, and sustainable solutions that make a difference to the root drivers of young people’s mental health challenges.

From Kailo and other projects we’re doing, we’re learning that belonging is relational. Relational systems don’t happen by accident, they are built through intentional design. In Kailo this looks like:

·      Centring young people as co-designers, not just participants;

·      Using systems thinking tools to map how social, economic and relational factors interact around mental health;

·      Bringing together local partners – schools, youth organisations, health services and young leaders – to collaboratively design change; and

·      Building local capacity to influence decisions and policies across systems.

Building belonging across settings and relationships

Belonging – feeling rooted, valued and connected – emerges from interactions across settings and relationships. Too often, systems ask or expect children and young people to adapt themselves to fit. Looking at whole systems and how factors and people in the system interact helps us reimagine what is possible when we instead seek to reshape systems to better support children.

When we think about belonging from a systems change point of view, we might explore:

·      What patterns in policy and practice are helping – or hindering – belonging?

·      Do adults across this system recognise and value children and young people?

·      Where do transitions break relationships instead of strengthening them?

·      Do policies enable flexibility and care, or enforce rigid compliance?

·      Who is not being heard when solutions or services are being designed?

·      Do the voices of young people shape the decisions being made in this system that affect their lives?

Belonging for all children

Thinking about how systems can be actively creating a sense of belonging for children and young people can help us move away from thinking about short-term fixes and towards addressing the conditions and root drivers that shape children and young people’s experiences.

In the context we’re facing in the UK right now, where the sense of belonging for global majority children and young people faces particular threat and the tendency may be towards systems doubling down on structures and unspoken rules that benefit some children and young people more than others, this relational work is more important than ever.

In our work on Kailo, and a number of our other place-based and mental health-focused projects, we’re building the evidence base to show how this can work in practice by understanding place, amplifying youth voice and redesigning systems so that all children can say “This is my place”.

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If you’re looking to explore this type of relational, systems change work that drives a sense of true belonging for children and young people, contact us today.