Mind
Signposting to other services when your lines are closed
Signpost to local services
Signpost to other local services so that young people can find help if your services don’t cover their needs. They may provide support that your service doesn't or may operate during different business hours.
Further description
Signpost to an organisation running outside of your service’s working hours
Young people may need urgent support at a time where your services aren’t running, so including at least 1 service available 24/7 will ensure they are never left alone.
Include at least one free service
Indicating which services are free of cost and which aren’t will also help users to make an informed decision before contacting.
Include contact details, time and type of support offered for all organisations you are signposting to
Contact information should include at least numbers and email addresses. Add the times when the services are available and clearly mention if the service is handled by a human.
Include services covering all regions of the country
Including at least 1 service available for each region of the UK will allow users experiencing a crisis to get the relevant help when they need it.
Partner with the organisations you signpost to manage the demand
Make sure you don’t overwhelm the organisation you signpost to by third party referrals. If your organisation is of significant size, be mindful of their size and give a heads up before sharing their details. It’s your organisation’s responsibility to check that the organisations you signpost to operate at the right caliber because a poor experience could undermine young people's willingness to get help.
Examples
Share your patterns
We’re constantly on the look out for new patterns. If you have a service/product which you think could be used as a new pattern, we’d love to hear about it.
