Young people are experiencing the poorest mental health of any age group in the UK. The system designed to help them is overwhelmed, and many young people referred to specialist services don’t receive the support they need. Practitioners across education and music are increasingly being asked to respond, often without adequate training, guidance or wellbeing support. This isn’t a problem that will resolve itself; it requires innovative approaches, in addition to, and as part of, policy developments.

This publication synthesises what we’re learning from practice and research about singing for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. It draws on over 50 sources: practitioner conversations, our Inspiring Voices podcast series, research summaries, sector consultations and case studies, to offer a map of emerging terrain rather than a set of instructions. It responds particularly to teachers and music practitioners who have told us they want support and guidance in this area.

There’s good evidence that singing supports wellbeing – social connection, emotional expression, a sense of belonging. But the deeper question we’re interested in is: can singing do more than make us feel good? Can it be part of a genuine response to mental health challenges? We strongly believe so, but we don’t yet have the robust evidence base to say so unequivocally. Practice is ahead of research: practitioners are seeing impact, but we’re missing the studies that would confirm causation, identify who benefits most, specify dosage and conditions, and track long-term outcomes. We also lack evidence for how singing-based approaches might work within and across educational settings – the infrastructure, partnerships and models which enable sustainable, scalable provision. This publication synthesises what we’re learning so far. It names what we know, what we’re discovering, and what we still need to find out.

A pattern emerges across the evidence: mental health challenges – especially at the more acute end – are often characterised by disconnection: from self, from others, from community, from education, from hope, from reality. Singing appears to work because it can create or restore connection across multiple dimensions simultaneously – physiological, relational, identity, cultural, temporal, aspirational. But singing doesn’t automatically create connection – it requires the right conditions: safe spaces, practitioner skill and knowledge, young people’s agency, and sustained engagement over time. When those conditions are present, powerful things can happen.

Practitioners working in this space need more than musical skill, they need mental health knowledge and relational capacity – what we call DO-KNOW-BE – and their welfare needs to be properly supported. The practitioner-participant relationship matters profoundly, especially for vulnerable young people – but it exists within a wider ecology of connections (to the activity, to the group, to the environment). One-off sessions rarely create lasting change; sustained, intentional work is needed. And there’s an important distinction between singing for general wellbeing and singing as targeted intervention for mental health – both matter, but they’re not the same thing. Our focus in this publication is on the latter, for young people who are really struggling.

The Sing Up Foundation is committed to building the evidence base, developing practical frameworks, and supporting practitioners. We’re taking forward work on DO-KNOW-BE, a living practitioner framework that articulates what skilled practitioners already know and do, and which we want to keep developing through dialogue and shared learning. We’re exploring practice-focused approaches to growing the evidence base, investing in the workforce, and continuing to advocate for singing’s role in mental health support. So this is a milestone, not a conclusion. The work continues, and we hope you’ll be part of it.