School-based mental health provision for children and young people (11-18 years) with experience of care: Mixed-method study of implementation, acceptability, need and priority outcomes

Background

The mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced children and young people (CYP) is a public health and social care priority. Schools are important settings for supporting mental health and wellbeing but there is a lack of services that are tailored to the needs of care-experienced CYP. There has been limited research on how schools, colleges and social work teams, can best work together to support CYP’s mental health and wellbeing.

Aims

The project aims to understand how CYP, parents and carers, school and college staff, and social workers experience delivering and receiving mental health and wellbeing provision for care experienced CYP (aged 11-25) in secondary schools and FE colleges in Wales.

Research methods

The project will include four related studies:

1. Survey analysis: Firstly, we will return to survey responses collected in 2017/18 as part of the School Health Research Network (SHRN). SHRN undertakes surveys of secondary schools in Wales every two years and we will look at pupil responses to understand care-experienced CYP’s views on mental health in schools. SHRN also conducts a survey of school policies (completed by senior staff), and we will re-analyse this to understand school mental health provision;

2. Schools: We will undertake interviews with CYP, parents and carers and staff in four schools;

3. FE colleges: We will conduct interviews and focus groups with CYP and staff in two further education colleges;

4. Social work teams:

Finally, we will conduct interviews and focus groups with senior managers and social workers in child services and foster carer social work teams.

From these studies we will develop a set of recommendations on how schools may better support the mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced CYP. We will present the recommendations at workshops with CYP, parents and carers, practitioners and policy-makers to develop them further.

Public involvement

Public involvement helped shape the application and contributed to the research questions (The Fostering Network in Wales’s Foster Carer and Young People Forums, and staff at Cardiff & Vale College). Public involvement throughout the study will include: consultation with stakeholder groups about current mental health provision; advice on engagement with care-experienced CYP and research tools; and consultation with the Project Advisory Group on all aspects of study delivery.

Dissemination

Study findings will be shared with researchers and policy-makers through conferences, publications, and policy briefings, including a briefing for younger readers. What we hope to discover We are hoping to discover how best to support the mental health and wellbeing of care experienced CYP in educational settings. The study will support policy-makers to ensure mental health and wellbeing is addressed within educational settings. It will also aid practitioners by sharing how current provision may be enhanced and what new provision may be supportive. Findings will also have a longer term impact in improving the health and education outcomes for care-experienced CYP.