Contents
- Youth peer support participation statistics: interest in giving and receiving support
- Youth peer support participation statistics: reasons young people do not take part
- Youth peer support participation statistics: motivations and prior experience
- Youth peer support participation statistics: online preferences and privacy
- youth peer support participation: School peer mentoring: reach, contact, and continuation
- youth peer support participation: Training and implementation barriers in youth peer support
- Sources
Youth peer support participation statistics: interest in giving and receiving support
In a 2016 voluntary online call for evidence, 50% of young respondents said they were interested in becoming a peer mentor or supporter for mental wellbeing. Around a quarter said they did not know enough about emotional wellbeing to decide, and just under a fifth did not want to give support. In the same call, 45% were interested in receiving peer support. These are statements of interest from people who chose to respond online, not measures of sign-ups or service use. Source: UK Department for Education, Peer support and children’s and young people’s mental health: Analysis of call for evidence activities, p. 12.
Respondents also selected programme qualities they considered important. Friendly and approachable supporters were chosen by 69%, trained and knowledgeable supporters by 50%, and flexible access to a supporter as needed by 43%. Multiple features could be selected, so these percentages are not mutually exclusive. On matching, 16% said they would choose friends as supporters, while 17% preferred someone from a different social group. The responses show varied preferences within this voluntary sample. Source: UK Department for Education, Peer support and children’s and young people’s mental health, p. 14.
| Stated preference in the 2016 call | Young respondents |
|---|---|
| Friendly and approachable supporters | 69% |
| Trained and knowledgeable supporters | 50% |
| Flexible access as needed | 43% |
| Choose friends as supporters | 16% |
| Prefer someone from a different social group | 17% |
Youth peer support participation statistics: reasons young people do not take part
In the English peer support pilot follow-up, eligible pupils who had not taken part were asked why. The most common answers were that support did not feel necessary and that it had not been offered. Among under-11 non-participants, 47% said they did not feel they needed it and 26% said it was not offered. Among respondents aged 11+, the figures were 52% and 23%. The bases were 163 and 105, respectively.
Social concerns were also reported: 16% of under-11 and 8% of 11+ non-participants worried about what others would think; 7% and 4%, respectively, said they were too embarrassed to ask. These percentages describe reasons given by pilot non-participants, not all eligible pupils. Source: UK Department for Education, Evaluation of the Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing Pilots, Figure 4.3.
| Reason given by non-participants | Under 11 (n=163) | Age 11+ (n=105) |
|---|---|---|
| Did not feel they needed it | 47% | 52% |
| It was not offered to them | 26% | 23% |
| Worried what other people would think | 16% | 8% |
| Too embarrassed to ask | 7% | 4% |
A separate hypothetical question asked what might make respondents more likely to take up support if they needed it. “Nothing, I would never consider it” was selected by 35% of under-11 respondents and 48% of those aged 11+; the bases were 153 and 104. More information was selected by 30% and 18%, while more privacy was selected by 21% and 10%. These answers express possible conditions for future take-up, not later participation. Source: UK Department for Education, Evaluation of the Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing Pilots, Figure 4.4.
Youth peer support participation statistics: motivations and prior experience
Among under-11 supporters in the English pilot follow-up, 53% said they took the role because they liked trying new things, 41% cited interest in people and being a good listener, and 27% wanted to share their experiences. Among supporters aged 11+, 44% cited interest in people and listening, 35% wanted to share experiences, and 33% cited volunteering or trying new things. The bases were 165 and 107. Respondents could give more than one prompted reason. For the 11+ group, 27% also cited gaining skills and CV experience, while 25% said a teacher or youth worker thought they would be good at the role. Source: UK Department for Education, Evaluation of the Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing Pilots, Figures 4.1–4.2.
Prior experience of a similar role was reported by 38% of primary-stage mentors and 41% of secondary-stage mentors. The report includes similar roles at school or in a youth or sports club, so the measure is broader than previous formal peer mentoring. Source: UK Department for Education, Evaluation of the Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing Pilots, p. 75.
Secondary-age participants were asked retrospectively whether the programme helped with skills and understanding. Of those answering, 65% said it helped a lot with listening and understanding others’ thoughts and feelings, 54% with communication skills, and 53% with leadership skills. Another 53% said it helped a lot with understanding mental-health issues affecting children and young people. The item base was 122; these are retrospective assessments, not measured before-and-after changes. Source: UK Department for Education, Evaluation of the Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing Pilots, Figure 5.5.
Among mentees, 87% of under-11 respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the programme was a safe and confidential place to raise worries or concerns. The corresponding figure among mentees aged 11+ was 82%. Item bases varied from 147 to 158 for under-11s and from 99 to 102 for those aged 11+. Source: UK Department for Education, Evaluation of the Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing Pilots, Figures 4.8–4.9.
Youth peer support participation statistics: online preferences and privacy
In the 2016 call, 45% of young respondents considered anonymity important for online peer support, and 44% said an online setting should be a safe place to get advice. Just under a quarter considered an award or seal of approval important; 12% considered a recommendation from a teacher or another adult important. These are stated preferences from a voluntary online respondent group, not usage rates. Source: UK Department for Education, Peer support and children’s and young people’s mental health, pp. 21–22.
Privacy also featured among respondents who said they would not use peer support: 44% of that online-call subgroup cited privacy concerns. The cited passage does not give the subgroup’s base, so this is not 44% of all young respondents. In the pilot follow-up, more privacy was selected as a possible facilitator by 21% of under-11 respondents and 10% of respondents aged 11+, as described above. The questions and groups differ, though both record privacy as a stated consideration. Source: UK Department for Education, Peer support and children’s and young people’s mental health, p. 14; pilot evaluation, Figure 4.4.
Tellmi’s 2025 impact survey provides a service-specific view. The report-wide sample was N=1,035; 29% of respondents said they were accessing mental-health support for the first time, and 38% said Tellmi was their only source of support. Item-level bases were not provided on the webpage. These self-reports describe Tellmi respondents, not young people generally. Source: Tellmi, “The Power of Peer Support,” 15 July 2025.
youth peer support participation: School peer mentoring: reach, contact, and continuation
The English pilot selected 100 organizations in 2017: 41 primary schools, 41 secondary schools, 5 special schools, 4 colleges, and 9 children and young people community organizations. These are pilot-site counts, not national coverage. Source: UK Department for Education, Evaluation of the Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing Pilots, Table 2.1.
At follow-up, 70% of primary-stage and 68% of secondary-stage mentees said they saw their supporter about once a week. More-than-weekly contact was reported by 20% of primary and 12% of secondary respondents; 20% of secondary respondents said contact was less than weekly. Bases were 69 primary and 65 secondary mentees. Source: UK Department for Education, Evaluation of the Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing Pilots, Figure 3.3.
Meetings usually took place during the school day for 70% of primary and 78% of secondary respondents. Before- or after-school meetings were reported by 15% and 5%, respectively; bases were 61 and 64. These figures describe usual timing, not session counts or total time in support. In 2019, 56% of 32 responding pilot leads planned to continue the same approach, and 28% planned an amended or different approach. These were plans reported at follow-up, not verified later continuation. Source: UK Department for Education, Evaluation of the Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing Pilots, Figures 3.4 and 3.9.
Other programmes used different reach measures. Across 8 California pilot high-school sites, 936 students used peer-to-peer services at least once in Year 1, and 140 served as peer-support leaders. Repeat engagement meant returning for multiple sessions; rates varied by school, with some sites reporting 0% and others 68%–100%. This is a site-level range, not a pooled or statewide rate. Source: Children’s Partnership, Peer to Peer Youth Mental Health: Year One Findings, p. 15.
The Mental Health Foundation reports that its evaluated Peer Education Project was delivered from 2015 to 2023 to over 40,000 pupils in over 200 secondary schools across the UK and internationally. These cumulative delivery counts describe programme scale over that period, not a national participation estimate. Source: Mental Health Foundation, “Peer Education Project (PEP) Overview”.
youth peer support participation: Training and implementation barriers in youth peer support
In the 2016 call for evidence, 96% of young respondents felt that peer support participants needed some training. Specific needs included responding to upsetting disclosures (42%), confidentiality and role boundaries (41%), training before taking on the role (37%), safeguarding (37%), and ongoing training (37%). These are views about preparation, not records of training received. Source: UK Department for Education, Peer support and children’s and young people’s mental health, pp. 18–19.
At pilot follow-up, 32 responding leads reported that mentors received training before support began (94%), ongoing supervision (81%), written materials (63%), training during support (44%), and ad-hoc supervision (9%). These organization-level reports do not show how many individual mentors received each form of support. The same leads reported implementation barriers: staff time to oversee the pilot and timetabling difficulties (38% each), funding constraints (34%), and lack of physical space or suitable premises (28%). Lack of interest among children and young people was reported by 16%, and lack of available peer mentors by 13%. These are lead-reported operational issues, not proof that any one barrier prevented participation. Source: UK Department for Education, Evaluation of the Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing Pilots, Figures 3.6 and 3.8.
A UK feasibility study of a peer education project shows why participation counts need their denominators kept distinct. Across 6 intervention schools, teachers supplied email addresses for 207 peer educators and 1,209 peer learners. Questionnaire participation was 597 students at baseline and 417 at follow-up, with 203 taking part at both time points. Among matched participants, complete responses ranged from 159 for the peer-support measure to 185 for help-seeking intentions. Address lists, questionnaire responses, matched participants, and complete responses represent different stages, so they do not form a single participation rate. Source: Assessing the Feasibility of a Peer Education Project to Improve Mental Health Literacy in Adolescents in the UK, pp. 2, 4.
Baseline demographic tables used their own denominators. Among 586 respondents with student-status data, 161 were peer educators (27.4%) and 425 were peer learners (72.5%). Of 590 respondents with school-year data, 259 were in Year 7 (43.9%). These describe baseline respondents in the intervention schools, not all students in those schools. Source: Assessing the Feasibility of a Peer Education Project to Improve Mental Health Literacy in Adolescents in the UK, Table 2.
Sources
- Evaluation of the Peer Support for Mental Health and Wellbeing Pilots
- Peer support and children’s and young people’s mental health: Analysis of call for evidence activities
- Peer to Peer Youth Mental Health: Year One Findings
- The Power of Peer Support
- Assessing the Feasibility of a Peer Education Project to Improve Mental Health Literacy in Adolescents in the UK
- Peer Education Project (PEP) Overview