Inclusive Quality First Teaching should be in place to support all children to develop their social, emotional and mental health skills.
The Thrive model (external link) offers an integrated, person centred and needs led approach to supporting the mental health of children, young people and families.
The Thrive model includes five needs-based groupings:
- Thriving
- Getting advice
- Getting help
- Getting more help
- Getting risk support.
Those thriving in school will benefit from whole school initiatives to support their health, emotional wellbeing and resilience. A fundamental element of this will be the curriculum teaching and learning to promote resilience and mental wellbeing (external link) delivered within the Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) (external link) and Health Education curriculum.
The Emotionally Friendly Schools (EFS (external link) programme is available to all schools in Wigan to support the leadership and development of a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing, in line with the eight principles in Promoting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing (external link) developed by Public Health England, working in partnership with the Department for Education.
The process of EFS, facilitated by the Educational Psychologist for the school, works best with multi-agency collaboration.
Read more about the Emotionally Friendly Schools programme at Educational Psychology Service.
Emotionally friendly schools
In addition to engaging in the EFS programme, we advise that all schools use the evidence-based resources available to them at Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families (external link) and join the Schools in Mind (external link) network to support the ongoing development of their universal mental health offer.
The foundation to good attendance in school is a calm, orderly, safe and supportive environment in which all pupils want to attend and can learn and thrive. Guidance within the Working together to improve school attendance (external link) can support.
Advice for Head Teachers and Senior Leaders in developing systems to reduce Emotionally Based School Avoidance.
Children and young people may need access to advice, information and signposting to maintain good emotional health and wellbeing, for example following a period of loss, change or uncertainty (Getting Advice). The advice or information required will vary with context, although a first step will often be to revisit curriculum materials and key messages communicated universally, to check understanding and to consider how they can be used to further support coping and self-management. Strengthening existing relationships and avenues of support is key here. Agencies available to support with advice and signposting are detailed within the THRIVE Directory (external link).
Additional information and resources:
Additional
Some children and young people will require additional social, emotional and mental health support and special educational provision for a limited or extended period. As with all areas of need, identification of social emotional and mental health need begins with exploring pupil voice and communication.
The EFS manual provides a range of tools to support assessment in this area.
When working with children and young people experiencing difficulties in this area, it is extremely important to take a holistic approach and to explore whether there could be a different underlying primary area of need such as:
- Social Communication
- Cognition and Learning
- Speech and Language
- Executive Functioning, attention or concentration difficulties
- Sensory needs.
Children who have neurodevelopmental diagnoses, such as Autism (external link) and / or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (external link), can often find it difficult to cope in school, have raised anxiety and require targeted SEMH support and a range of adjustments. Staff therefore need to have a good understanding of these conditions in order to ensure that SEMH needs are met.
Some children and young people will require access to focused, evidence-based intervention, with clear aims, and criteria for assessing whether aims have been achieved. Within The Thrive Model, this is termed, ‘Getting Help.’ This may be provided either by an appropriate member of school staff or an external professional. Through consultation with the child or young person, parents / carers and appropriate agencies, the ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ cycle will be followed, detailing any agreed intervention, alongside the special educational provision that the child will access in school to facilitate the success of the intervention and / support their wellbeing and wider needs in school. e.g., meet and greet opportunities, classroom-based strategies, language / literacy intervention, peer support or sensory adaptations.
The Emotionally Friendly Schools manual includes a wide range of resources to support planning and intervention for children and young people experiencing social, emotional and mental health difficulties requiring additional targeted support.
When children and young people are experiencing difficulty attending school or lessons due to emotional factors, it is important that school staff intervene as soon as avoidant responses are noticed and follow the Emotionally Based School Avoidance Guidance (external link) developed by the Educational Psychology Service.
Severe and Complex / Specialist
For those presenting with a high level of SEMH need and those accessing specialist mental health support (Getting More Help), the ‘Assess Plan Do Review’ cycle implemented to determine their special educational provision will continue to involve close liaison between home, school and supporting mental health or other professionals.
The Thrive Model also includes the group, ‘Getting Risk Support’ This grouping comprises those children and young people who are currently unable to benefit from evidence-based mental health treatment but remain a significant concern. The role of specialist mental health services for this group is to support other agencies to manage the risk. Again, the ‘Assess Plan Do Review’ cycle will determine their special educational provision and involve close liaison between home, school and supporting professionals, The role of the multi-agency team for children and young people within this grouping will be to build trust, to support help-seeking and to strengthen existing help, both professional and non-professional.
In following the Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle and implementing the advice from specialist services, it is envisaged that very few children/young people will require an Education Health and Care Assessment and Plan. The referral for an EHC Assessment needs to demonstrate evidence that advice has been sought and acted on, following ongoing ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ cycles. This evidence should then be able to demonstrate why the child/young person requires this high level of intervention and provision. When applying for an Education, Health and Care Plan for Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs there should be evidence that the primary area of need has been correctly identified.