The Mulberry Bush School is a children’s home and special school in Standlake, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. It accepts referrals of boys and girls aged 5–13 years who are experiencing severe social, emotional, and mental health difficulties. This entry provides a brief description of the children coming to the Mulberry Bush and the provision made for them. It also discusses key past and present concepts informing the school’s work and addresses the school’s involvement in the therapeutic community movement, its core practice model for therapeutic childcare, and comments on its enduring significance for mental health provision for children.

Children placed at the Mulberry Bush School are made vulnerable by their past family circumstances and have complex histories of abuse and neglect. They experience emotional barriers to forming ...