Using The Local Mental Health Toolkit

We know that children and young people face many challenges in life, ranging from stress and anxiety, low mood and identity issues to much more complex, long-term mental health conditions. At the same time, poor attachment, relationship issues, experiences of bullying and discrimination can affect their mental health.

Good social, emotional and mental wellbeing can create the foundations for healthy behaviours and educational attainment also helps to prevent behavioural challenges as well as mental health problems. Therefore, schools and colleges play an important role in supporting children and young people by helping them become resilient and mentally healthy. We recognise that many are already promoting mental wellbeing by providing access to education, giving a sense of belonging, and developing social and emotional skills, which are all protective factors for children and young people’s wellbeing).

Health, Education and Third Sector Partners across Cambridgeshire & Peterborough are working to provide schools and colleges with training opportunities and practical guidance to develop knowledge and skills, develop mental health and wellbeing of pupils, prevent minor problems from escalating into more serious long-term issues and intervene earlier through a whole school approach to mental health & emotional wellbeing.

Whole school approaches are underpinned by the following 8 principles. Each of these sections will provide tips, resources, further reading and ideas to help you embed these in your setting:

  1. Management & Leadership
  2. Ethos & Environment
  3. Curriculum, Teaching & Learning
  4. Student Voice
  5. Staff Development, Health & Wellbeing
  6. Identifying need and monitoring impact
  7. Working with parents, families and carers
  8. Targeted support

How to begin

This will enable you to make preparations for planning, monitoring and evaluation. In addition, it provides:

  • An opportunity to raise awareness of emotional health and mental wellbeing with school/ college staff and pupils.
  • A reason to start conversations about emotional health and mental wellbeing, and build upon relationships with parents / carers, the local community and providers of mental health services.
  • Evidence for the school/college to use to highlight the work that is being carried out to promote positive emotional health and mental wellbeing which are linked to the Ofsted inspection criteria (personal development, behaviour and welfare) and NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guidance.
  • The basis for the development of a tailored action plan for your setting – an example of what this can look like can be found here
Strategic Change WSA priorities action plan

Each of these priorities are addressed in The Blueprint resource .

To gain the most from this approach the whole educational setting needs to be fully engaged with the process.

How is your setting providing visible senior leadership for emotional health and mental wellbeing?

Ofsted Inspection Framework Links to pupil health & wellbeing
Quality of leadership in, and management of the school. Schools have to demonstrate how effectively management and leadership enables all pupils to overcome specific barriers to learning and the extent to which leaders and managers create a positive ethos in the school. The framework also specifies that schools should demonstrate capacity for further improvement, e.g. by working in partnership with other schools, early years’ providers, external agencies and the community; as well as by engaging with parents
Ofsted reported a close correlation between the grade that schools were awarded for overall effectiveness in their last inspection and their grade for PSHE.
The quality and nature of relationships, spanning pupil to pupil and pupil to teacher, are key to promoting a sense of belonging and pupils’ liking of school, which influences pupil wellbeing and readiness to learn.

Good practice tips:

  • Emotional health and mental wellbeing are clearly referenced in relevant school/college plans and key documents. For example, the school health and wellbeing plan, the development plan, the school/college website and the prospectus.
  • A named member of the senior leadership team to support emotional health and mental wellbeing.
  • A named member of staff to link the school and college to mental health providers and specialist services.
  • Support and training for school governors to enable them to champion emotional health and wellbeing.
  • A robust monitoring and reporting system for pupils struggling with their mental health problems through pastoral care and child protection.
  • The school/college promotes positive messages about emotional health and wellbeing as well as tackling myths about mental health by signing up to and promoting key campaigns.
  • The setting has comprehensive policies which promote mental health & emotional wellbeing. This includes consistently challenging negative images and stereotypes via health and wellbeing policies, anti-bullying, behaviour policy and PSHE curriculum.

 

NGA Pupil wellbeing guidance and toolkit:

The NGA have published new guidance with mental health charity Place2Be to help governing boards support pupil mental health and wellbeing through a whole school approach. The guidance outlines:

  • governing boards’ statutory responsibilities for wellbeing
  • the eight principles of a whole school approach o how governing boards can influence and support a whole school approach
  • questions to ask to review and monitor implementation and impact

As part of their ‘widening the lens: addressing educational disadvantage’ collection, the NGA has published a new toolkit to help governing boards work with their school leaders in identifying and tackling educational disadvantage of those with mental health challenges in their setting. It is recommended the Governors and Trustees use the guidance in conjunction with the toolkit.

 

Resources & examples to support you putting this into practice:

Do you have a practice case example or know of a good resource that should be included for this principle and shared with other settings?

Let us know by contacting the Healthy Schools Team: [email protected]

How does the school/college’s culture promote respect and value diversity?

Ofsted Inspection Framework Links to pupil health & wellbeing
Behaviour and safety of pupils at school. Pupils sense of belonging to school is a key determinant of their wellbeing and is higher in schools where children feel safe and have lower levels of bullying. These are also more likely to be high achievers.

Good practice tips:

  • The senior leadership team provides clear leadership to create and manage the physical, social and emotional environment as this impacts on staff and pupils/ students emotional health and mental wellbeing.
  • The named lead responsible for emotional health and mental wellbeing is part of the senior management team.
  • The school and college development plan has reference to emotional health and mental wellbeing including work life balance for staff.
  • Develop a climate and ethos which supports ‘connectedness’, a feeling of being accepted, respected and bonded to the school environment.
  • Dedicated staff training, signposting information (staff and students), PSHE and library resources and targeted mental health campaigns (including tackling stigma and discrimination).
  • A programme of social and emotional learning is delivered within the school as well as across subjects. The Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) or similar is being delivered and is cross referenced in PSHE schemes of work.

Resources & examples to support you putting this into practice:

Do you have a practice case example or know of a good resource that should be included for this principle and shared with other settings?

Let us know by contacting the Healthy Schools Team: [email protected]

What focus is given within the curriculum to social learning and promoting personal resilience, and how is learning assessed?

Ofsted Inspection Framework Links to pupil health & wellbeing
Quality of teaching Systematic structured teaching of social and emotional life skills and values throughout school life has the potential to increase emotional wellbeing and academic achievement

Good practice tips:

  • Make effective use of PSHE Association, who, in partnership with the Department for Education (DfE), provides guidance for schools on preparing to teach about mental health and emotional wellbeing. The guidance is accompanied by set of lesson plans spanning key stages 1– 4. The guidance covers key issues including:
    • Why it is important to teach about mental health and emotional wellbeing.
    • Building teaching about mental health into a planned PSHE programme.
    • Promoting wellbeing and resilience from an early age.
    • Ensuring teaching is appropriate to the age and maturity of pupils.
    • Key principles in teaching mental health and emotional wellbeing safely and confidently.
    • Using visits to the classroom to support lessons.
    • Addressing challenging mental health issues such as eating disorders, self-harm and suicide.
  • Explore what other teaching and extra-curricular resources are available based on needs identified through your self-assessment. There are a range of organisations working across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who deliver school-based programmes and interventions to support positive mental health and building resilience

Resources & examples to support you putting this into practice:

Do you have a practice case example or know of a good resource that should be included for this principle and shared with other settings?

Let us know by contacting the Healthy Schools Team: [email protected]

How does your setting ensure all students have the opportunity to express their views and influence decisions?

Ofsted Inspection Framework
Ofsted inspectors must have regard to the views of pupils. When assessing the level of behaviour and safety in schools, inspections should look at a small sample of case studies in order to evaluate the experience of particular individuals and groups, including disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs, looked after children and those with mental health needs.

Good practice tips:

Pupil participation can happen in a variety of ways and at different levels of school life. Some of these are:

  • Having an authentic voice in teaching and learning.
  • Processes such as focus groups, questionnaires, surveys and consultations.
  • Participatory groups such as class/school councils, topic specific committees e.g. eco committee, peer mentors’ programmes, including peer-led/education approaches.
  • Having structures in place so that all pupils can be involved in decision making, including those with additional learning needs.

Make sure you close the feedback loop – communicate back to pupils and wider school/college community on what changes have been implemented as a result of their views and opinions.

Resources & examples to support you putting this into practice:

Do you have a practice case example or know of a good resource that should be included for this principle and shared with other settings?

Let us know by contacting the Healthy Schools Team: [email protected]

How are staff supported in relation to their own health and wellbeing and able to support student wellbeing?

Ofsted Inspection Framework Links to pupil health & wellbeing
Management & Leadership When assessing management and leadership, inspectors must consider the school’s use of performance management and the effectiveness of strategies for improving teaching. This should include the extent to which professional development is based on the identified needs of staff and the induction needs of newly qualified teachers and teachers at an early stage of their career.

Good practice tips:

  • Ensure opportunities are provided to staff to enhance their own health and wellbeing and by promoting a work-life balance for staff.
  • Make sure you build in protected time for staff to access internal or external supervision (e.g. clinical supervision) to enable them to support individual children with emotional or mental health problems as suited to their role.
  • Use the staff appraisal system as a way to monitor staff health and wellbeing
  • Provide resources and information to staff on how to access mental health support service if they need it and promote wellness e.g. the 5 ways to wellbeing
  • Complete a training needs assessment of all staff within your setting – we have locally developed a https://www.keep-your-head.com/schools/12-21/staff-training/mental-health-training-competency-framework-for-school-staff to support you with this
  • All staff (internal and external) delivering aspects of children and young people’s social, emotional and psychological wellbeing are fully trained, confident and competent.
  • There is dedicated time in CPD for all teaching staff and practitioners delivering emotional health and mental wellbeing interventions.

Resources & examples to support you putting this into practice:

Do you have a practice case example or know of a good resource that should be included for this principle and shared with other settings?

Let us know by contacting the Healthy Schools Team: [email protected]

How does your setting assess the needs of students and the impact of interventions to improve wellbeing?

Ofsted Inspection Framework Links to pupil health & wellbeing
Management & Leadership When inspecting the quality of leadership and management of, the school, Ofsted inspectors should consider the effectiveness of monitoring and evaluation and the extent to which this information is shared with governors. They should also consider how well the school meets the needs of all vulnerable groups of pupils.
Quality of Teaching Assessing and responding to the emotional health and wellbeing needs of children and learners, and taking steps to mitigate the impact this has on their capacity to learn could provide supportive evidence in relation to all key judgement areas: the achievement of pupils at the school, the quality of teaching in the school, the behaviour and safety of pupils at the school and the quality of leadership and management of, the school.

Good practice tips:

  • Where appropriate, use validated tools to assess pupil emotional health and mental wellbeing (including identifying those who need extra support) as well as evaluating outcomes of interventions. Ensure any staff using assessment tools are adequately trained and supported to do so.
  • Effective use of data so that changes in pupil patterns of attainment, attendance or behaviour are noted and acted on. Use results of the Health-Related Behaviour Survey, conducted every 2 years across Cambridgeshire & Peterborough to inform your action planning.
  • Ensure that there is an effective pastoral system in place so that at least one member of staff (e.g. form teacher or class teacher) knows each pupil well and can spot changes in individual behaviour patterns and act on these appropriately.
  • Schools and colleges should be mindful that some groups of children are more vulnerable to mental health difficulties than others and that measures are taken to be inclusive of these pupils.
  • Ensure regular maintenance and updating of your whole school assessment framework and action plan to be responsive to any changes in trends, needs and demand.

Resources & examples to support you putting this into practice:

Do you have a practice case example or know of a good resource that should be included for this principle and shared with other settings?

Let us know by contacting the Healthy Schools Team: [email protected]

How does your setting work in partnership with parents and carers to promote emotional health and wellbeing?

Ofsted Inspection Framework
The Ofsted inspection criteria expects schools to engage parents in supporting pupils’ achievement, behaviour and safety and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Ofsted inspectors have a duty to have regard to the views of parents. Inspectors will also take account of the results of any surveys carried out or commissioned by the school.

Good practice tips:

  • Provide parents and carers with regular opportunities to give their views on emotional health and mental health provision.
  • Ensure parental/carer participation and training is part of a whole school programme.
  • Provide information for all parents/carers on the need to provide an effective emotional health and mental wellbeing programme and the resources used.
  • Ensure parents, carers and other family members are supported with information to enable them to promote social and emotional wellbeing of pupils outside of the educational environment as well as support on managing mental health issues in the home.
  • Maintain transparency with parents and carers (as appropriate) regarding any mental health issues their child may be presenting with in the school/college and what action you are taking to support them
  • Acknowledge that some parents or carers may need additional support, for example by offering a range of times for any parent-facing sessions or providing help with transport and childcare. This might involve liaison with family support agencies.
  • Parents and carers should be aware of the school’s emotional health and mental wellbeing policy and how you will deal with sensitive issues and specific questions from pupils.
  • Signpost to the new national website which provides mental health advice to parents and carers: Home | ThisMayHelp

Do you have a practice case example or know of a good resource that should be included for this principle and shared with other settings?

Let us know by contacting the Healthy Schools Team: [email protected]

How does your setting ensure timely and effective identification of pupils who would benefit from coordinated support and ensure an appropriate response takes place?

Ofsted Inspection Framework
Ofsted inspectors will be interested in how monitoring ensures that individual children or groups of children with identified needs are targeted, and appropriate interventions are secured so that children receive the support they need, including through effective partnerships with external agencies and other providers.

Good practice tips:

  • Ensure all children and young people can be sign posted to relevant helplines/websites and have access to free information and self-help resources in relation to emotional health and mental wellbeing and this is well promoted around the setting environment
  • Pupils should be able to understand the pastoral and self-referral arrangements within the educational setting.
  • Where pupils experience difficulties, be responsive to their needs in a proportionate manner. Develop a clear support plan and try to manage the situation from escalating before referring onto a specialist service such as YOUnited or CAMHS. If you are unsure seek advice from the Emotional Health & Wellbeing service or your Local Authority Educational Psychology lead
  • Try to provide targeted and intense work on social and emotional skills development for pupils identified as having difficulties, including one to one support and group work.
  • Use specialist staff and services (internal or external) to initiate innovative programmes to promote emotional wellbeing and/or provide interventions to pupils with an identified need
  • Ensure any pupil on an Individual health care plan have the support they need in place and this is reviewed regularly. If medication is recommended by mental health professionals, staff should be aware of any medication that they are taking and comply with their statutory duty in caring for pupils with medical needs.

Resources & examples to support you putting this into practice:

Do you have a practice case example or know of a good resource that should be included for this principle and shared with other settings?

Let us know by contacting the Healthy Schools Team: [email protected]