In 1992, psychotherapist Ros Kane sat in the office of a head teacher at her local primary school and he said, "I know of ten children in this school who will commit suicide or homicide by the time they are twenty". Ros’s reaction was: ‘If we know this, why on earth isn’t something being done about it?’

 

As a result, she decided to develop help for children’s emotional and mental health, setting up a charity Carefree Kids in 2004. This charity harnessed the enthusiasm of local people and trainees on therapeutic courses. A programme of training and supervision was set up to equip these volunteers and trainees with the skills and support needed to work with children and young people. Soon many local children were benefiting from one-to-one support from a team of Carefree Kids volunteers.

 

In 2019, Carefree Kids sadly closed down due to lack of continued funding.

 

A small group of the therapeutic workers from the original organisation, along with Ros, saw that in light of the pandemic and other pressures,  the need for support for children was greater than ever. They founded Carefree Kids 2020. Carefree Kids 2020 is a re-establishing of the principles that the original charity was founded on, continuing the philosophy of supporting the emotional wellbeing of children, families and school staff through therapeutic play for children and individual sessions for parents/carers and school staff.