Research Library

This case study looks at how HeadStart Kernow raised awareness of the WMF and began to embed the use of WMF data across the system. Challenges they encountered include limited awareness of WMF and its potential locally, and issues around the accessibility of the data (2019).

Headstart Newham provide school and community based interventions for young people with emerging mental health needs. The service collects pre and post intervention surveys to measure young people’s self-rated mental health as well as key risk and protective factors for mental health outcomes. HeadStart Newham worked to develop a user friendly report for schools and community providers to see the progress of their young people following interventions (2019).

HeadStart areas have been successful in collecting a huge volume of data about student wellbeing using questionnaires. This is key to our aim to build evidence about what works and what doesn’t, and to share learning to benefit young people in future. Achieving this is no mean feat. This case study shares our learning about how to get a good response rate when using surveys to measure wellbeing in schools (2018).

We recently collaborated with CORC members, Kooth, to explore the validation of their newly developed measure to track change in single session therapies (SWAN-OM). The findings from the first part of our validation study have just been published. This includes our findings related to patterns in item selection, correlations with other measures and our suggestions of amendments to the measure. Authors: De Ossorno Garcia, S., Edbrooke-Childs, J. H., Salhi, L., Ruby, F. J., Sefi, A., & Jacob, J. (2023).

The Mercers’ Wellbeing Evaluation Programme aimed to support Mercers’ Associated Schools and Colleges to evaluate their mental health and wellbeing provision. The programme was delivered in two phases between 2016 and 2022. The final report from the Mercers’ Wellbeing Evaluation Programme is available online. It summarises the learning and achievements of the programme’s second phase, setting these within the context of the programme as a whole.

The Mercers’ Wellbeing Evaluation Programme aimed to support Mercers’ Associated Schools and Colleges to evaluate their mental health and wellbeing provision. The programme was delivered in two phases between 2016 and 2022. The final report from the Mercers’ Wellbeing Evaluation Programme is available online. It summarises the learning and achievements of the programme’s second phase, setting these within the context of the programme as a whole.

This briefing aims to describe an approach to monitoring and evaluating children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing in schools and colleges, as a means to provide better support. The IDEA (Intervention description, Design, Evaluation implementation, Analysis and reporting) approach is described, which gives practical steps to the development of approaches to evaluating support for mental health and wellbeing delivered in educational settings. Three evaluations that have adopted this approach are also summarised.

Why focus on children’s mental health at this time? What has the impact been on young people’s mental wellbeing? How can we best support children and young people’s mental health at this time?

This briefing draws on learning emerging from research led by the Evidence Based Practice Unit in collaboration with the Child Outcomes Research Consortium, The University of Manchester and Common Room. The Mercers’ Company funded the research. The Mercers’ Company is the Premier Livery Company of the City of London. Authors: Deighton, J., Stapley, E., Lereya, T., Burrell, K., Atkins, L. (2019).