Paper A

Targeted Mental Health in Schools Project

Phase 2 Pathfinder Event 19th January 2009

Leicestershire Summary

What are your proposed project outcomes what is your approach)?

Leicestershire is a large county and the pathfinder group have considered a long-term strategy. The approach of the pathfinder project is to:

  • Develop capacity in schools and services that will provide a model for whole county approaches.
  • Support and encourage locality development and the Extended Services in Schools programme to use their resources to sustain and extend the objectives of the Targeted Mental Health in Schools Project (TaMHS) as a county-wide initiative
  • Provide rigorous and meaningful evaluation that includes the views of children and young people (CYP) to support project development, feed into national evaluation and provide information to help develop TaMHS county-wide.
  • Provide a value for money profile for the project.

How are you going to achieve these (What are you going to do)?

The TaMHS project is going to develop and sustain a model in pilot groups of schools for extending across the county. The model will operate in three areas:

  1. The promotion of positive mental health and emotional well-being for CYP through embedding whole school approaches based on SEAL and the Healthy Schools Programme.
  2. Providing support, training and mentoring for school staff to identify vulnerable CYP and deliver a range of early interventions.
  3. Promote school’s effective use of local resources including the voluntary sector and partnership working with services, including specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

What are your proposed key milestones?

  1. The establishment of a strategic management group and a project group. By February 2009
  2. The appointment of a project lead, project manager, practitioner team leader and team of mixed agency trainer-mentors. Ready to start in April 2009.
  3. Project schools primed, key staff identified and project activities incorporated into planning. By April 2009.
  4. Project schools audit of the views of CYP, whole school approaches, vulnerable groups, identified gaps in interventions, training needs identified, initial approaches delivered and longer term plans incorporated. Summer term 2009.
  5. Development of whole school approaches and early intervention in project schools. Autumn term 2009.
  6. Timely evaluation including user group views. To contribute to bi-annual evaluations.
  7. Ongoing discussions with locality organisations and groups to identify local issues and needs, project links with local planning and voluntary groups links with project school. Project schools, in conjunction with locality organisations, allocate resources to fund posts to promote well-being and early interventions in project schools. By Spring 2010.
  8. Continued training and support/mentoring of existing and newly appointed project school staff. Summer and Autumn terms 2010.
  9. Ongoing reporting to appropriate forums, for example, locality groups in project areas, multi-agency forums in project areas. CountyCYPS Departmental Management Team. Extending reporting to new localities in January 2011.

What are the challenges and risks that you face?

  • Whilst committed to the appointment of practitioner team members in good time to start for April 2009, this is recognised as a potential area of difficulty.
  • Project school being able to give sufficient time to developing staff skills in delivering aspects of the menu of early interventions.
  • Services and the voluntary sector being able to provide targeted input for project schools.
  • Locality organisations and project school’s extending activities by allocating funding and posts for TaMHS work.

How do you propose to manage these?

A project lead has been identified and the initial project development group will be reformed as a strategic group by February 2009. This group and the project leader will oversee the appointment of practitioner team members for April 2009.

The project schools identified present differing needs, skills and understanding in promoting CYPs mental health and emotional well-being. The project activities in each group of school will vary as will the supporting locality infrastructure. In order to meet the three aims of the pathfinder project (whole school approaches; targeted early intervention in school; linking schools more effectively with local and support services), in each locality the project team will seek to:

  • Work with headteachers and senior staff in project schools over the duration of the project to ensure that the aims of the TaMHS is fully embedded in school organisation and planning.
  • Work with locality groups and organsiations, for example, multi-agency forums concerned with CAFs, to ensure that TaMHS is responsive to and forms part of local needs and provision.
  • Work with headteachers and locality groups regarding allocation of future funding for TaMHS activities.
  • Ensure rigorous and meaningful evaluation of project activities to support project development, feed into national evaluation and provide information to help develop TaMHS county-wide.

Dr Jean Law

Joint Principal Educational Psychologist/Project Lead