Mental Health and Wellbeing Provision in Schools: Review of Published Policies and Information

• Rebecca Brown, DfE(2018)

A priority set out by the Green Paper, ‘Transforming children and young people's mental health provision' is to ensure schools are adequately supported to build whole school environments and to develop approaches within which pupils can achieve their full potential.

Supporting schools to have a clear offer to promote pupils' mental health and wellbeing, and to protect them from bullying, are priorities for the Department for Education.

There are a range of duties to ensure schools take positive action to establish environments where all pupils are supported to engage fully. These duties encourage schools to promote a range of whole-school approaches and activities to develop respectful school communities and to support mental health and wellbeing.

DfE commissioned this study to further understanding of the extent that current content of schools' published policies and other information demonstrates relevant approaches and activities.

Methodology

Content analysis of the information and policies published on 100 school websites was conducted. The analysis included assessing policies or information schools are required to publish, as well as other information or policies on schools' websites where there are no requirements to publish but relate to the research questions.

The sample included 45 secondary schools, 45 primary schools and 10 special schools.

The review included analysis of 11 relevant school policy areas. A set of indicators were developed to measure the extent each policy area addressed respectful school communities and mental health and wellbeing.

This review intended to understand how schools view their statutory duties in relation to mental health and wellbeing and developing respectful school communities. This was a desk-based study only, direct contact was not made with schools to verify whether activities cited within their policies were an accurate representation of what was being implemented, or to check whether they were carrying out activities to promote mental health and wellbeing that were not referred to within their policies.

Schools and availability of policies

There are legislative requirements for schools to publish online policies or information in relation to: school behaviour and anti-bullying, special education needs, equality, school values, curriculum and Pupil Premium.

There are legislative requirements, under the Equality Act 2010, that all schools publish a policy or statement on equality. The Equality Act defines mental illness as a disability providing it has long-term adverse effects on a person's ability to carry out normal day to day activities.

Of the 90 primary and secondary schools reviewed, a policy or statement on equality was available for 77. This included, 84 per cent of primary schools and 87 per cent of secondary schools. Where policies were not available there was a notice on the website that they were temporarily unavailable for five schools. For eight schools however, there were no indications that a policy on equality existed.

Overall schools' equalities approaches promoted respectful schools and mental health. The school equality policies reviewed were substantially more likely to promote respectful school communities than mental health and wellbeing. Equality policies were focused on harassment and discrimination under the duties of the Equality Act, but very few made a link with mental health.

Promoting mental health and wellbeing

Currently, there are no duties on schools to have separate mental health policies. Overall, from the sample of 90 mainstream schools, only two primary schools and two secondary schools provided stand-alone and focussed policies on the mental health of pupils.

While very few schools provided mental health policies, there was evidence that at least 56 per cent of primary schools and 44 per cent of secondary schools were providing some form of mental health support.

Mental health support provided by schools, shown in their policies, was either in the form of targeted support for pupils displaying emotional and behavioural difficulties (12 primary and six secondary), universal support to promote pupils' self-esteem and resilience (eight primary and nine secondary), or a combination of both (five primary and five secondary).

Several support activities were identified in policies that targeted pupils displaying emotional and behavioural difficulties. In secondary schools these included: externally provided counselling, one-to-one sessions with a school pastoral team member, anger management classes, and targeted individual or small group interventions to raise self-esteem. In primary schools targeted support included: one to one therapeutically based sessions with school staff, externally provided counselling and play therapy, and interventions as part of schools' Nurture programmes.

Mostly, targeted mental health support was provided as part of Pupil Premium strategies.

School-based universal support

There was evidence in their policies that 13 primary schools and 14 secondary schools were providing some form of universal support or preventative activities to promote mental health and wellbeing.

Universal support in secondary schools included school wellbeing centres; school Nurture approaches, school pastoral teams and home liaison workers; embedding mental health education within the curriculum, particularly in PSHE and SEAL programmes; promoting exercise, such as school gym facilities; and engaging with a local farm for pupils to carry out work to raise self-esteem.

In primary schools universal support included school Nurture approaches; Forest school approaches; circle time; classes on self-esteem and resilience; and embedding mental health and wellbeing within the curriculum.

There was evidence within the policies that at least 25 primary schools and 20 secondary schools were providing some form of support for pupils' mental health needs. However, the extent to which those schools appeared to be doing this as part of a whole-school, coherent approach or strategy to promote mental health and emotional wellbeing was varied.

There was evidence in their policies that 13 primary schools and eight secondary schools were showing excellent practice in providing support to promote the mental health and emotional wellbeing of their pupils as part of whole-school coherent strategies or approaches.

Conclusions

The review identified a variety of approaches, interventions, and support stated within schools' policies that can contribute towards the promotion of mental health and wellbeing. However, there was limited reference within these polices that they were part of wider whole-school strategies. This suggests that schools would benefit from further awareness, advice and resources to enable stand-alone interventions to be further embedded within coherent whole-school strategies that promote the mental health and wellbeing of all pupils.

Most evidence-informed approaches and interventions to promote mental health and wellbeing were identified within schools' behaviour policies. This indicates that schools were identifying pupils' additional emotional and psychological needs by the extent of their disruptive behaviour.

Most evidence-informed practice related to behaviour management techniques. This suggests that further advice, training and resources might be necessary to enable schools to more comprehensively understand the links between mental health and behaviour, and to enable schools to address these needs more holistically. It might also be helpful for schools to further their awareness of risk factors relating to mental illness, particularly where pupils are not behaving in overtly disruptive ways, such as pupils who might be suffering with anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

To further enable schools' awareness of mental health, and to fully underpin how schools' policies can promote the mental health and wellbeing of pupils, it might be helpful if there was a shift in the discourse of guidance and training from behaviour and behaviour management, to a focus on mental health, wellbeing and building emotional resilience.

Implications for practice

• This review identifies a variety of approaches, interventions, and support stated within schools' policies that can contribute toward the promotion of mental health and wellbeing. There was limited reference within these policies that they were part of wider whole-school strategies.
• Schools respond to, and prevent, bullying through a number of initiatives within anti-bullying policies: circle time; anti-bullying weeks, whole-school assemblies; school awareness campaigns; external speakers; school council involvement; pupil involvement with developing anti-bullying policies.
• Schools would benefit from further awareness, advice and resources to enable stand-alone interventions to be further embedded within coherent whole-school strategies that promote the mental health and wellbeing of pupils.
• It found that schools anti-bullying policies tend to be focused on procedures for responding to bullying, rather than promoting respectful schools or mental health and wellbeing.
  
  

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