CHANGE THEORY

Develop from Area Project Coordinators’, head teachers’ and trained staff’s comments in realistic interviews. PS with participatory relationship with Area Project Coordinator. Interventions are valued and timetabled. (PT1:C1) √ Non PS head teacher and staff are interested in the promotion of mental health and emotional wellbeing. Interventions are valued and timetabled. (PT1:C2) √

Head teachers meet regularly with APC to plan Treasure Project work around whole school needs in a multi-faceted and multi-level way. (PT2:M1) √

INSET training takes place around mental health and emotional wellbeing

(PT2:M2) √

Staff approach APC for advice, guidance and support (PT2:M6) some evidence from Phase 1

Families are referred to Treasure Project

Educational Psychologist (PT2:M7) no strong evidence from Phase 1

APC developed links with partner agencies in the area local to the school (PT2:M8) no strong evidence from Phase 1

Pathways for referral are understood and used when appropriate

(PT2:M9) no strong evidence from Phase 1

TP team ensure parents have good knowledge of (and links with) TP work in school

(PT2:M10) no strong evidence from Phase 1

Head teachers will comment positively on the advice, guidance and support of TP

(PT2:O1) some evidence from Phase 1

TP team’s advice, guidance and support is valued

(PT2:O2) some evidence from Phase 1

Head teacher views staff as being more

knowledgeable about the promotion of mental health and emotional wellbeing

(PT2:O3) √

Families report positive outcomes from meeting with Educational

Psychologist (PT2:O4) no evidence from Phase 1

Partner agencies report strong links to TP (PT2:O5) and referrals Pathways are used appropriately (PT2:O6)

no evidence from Phase 1

Projects in school include local partners and agencies and school community

(PT2: 07) no evidence from Phase 1

Parents’ comments about TP are positive

(PT2:O8) some evidence from Phase 1

General Hypothesis built from Programme Theory 3 Hypothesised Evidence of Positive School Contexts in the Treasure

Project that might support General Hypothesis built from Programme Theory 3

(with coding)

Hypothesised Evidence of Effective Mechanisms

in the Treasure Project that might support General Hypothesis built from Programme

Theory 3 (with coding)

Hypothesised Evidence of Outcomes in the Treasure Project that might support General

Hypothesis built from Programme Theory 3 (with coding) PT 3: School staff and/or volunteers supporting vulnerable children are better able to positively impact on their socio-emotional health (O) if they have participated in training (M), received supervision (M) and have followed through consistently with the approach they have been trained (M) in when working with children over a period of time (M). KEEP THEORY – refine configurations of CMOs in successful schools Ask Area Project Coordinators, head teachers and trained staff in realistic interviews about CMO configurations.

PS with participatory relationship with Area Project Coordinator. Interventions are valued and timetabled. (PT1:C1) √ Non PS head teacher and staff are interested in the promotion of mental health and emotional wellbeing. Interventions are valued and timetabled. (PT1:C2) √

Staff are trained in specific approaches to support mental health and emotional wellbeing and interventions are put in place

(PT2:M5) √

APC facilitates the co- delivery of intervention with school staff (PT3: M11) √

Planning/reflection takes place before/after intervention delivery (PT3: M12) √

Trained staff set up interventions and use approaches

(PT3: O1) √

Interventions continue in school after training (PT3: O2) √

Staff feel confident about delivering interventions or facilitating therapeutic groups without support (PT3: O3) √

Further training is sought in same or different approach

(PT3: O4) some evidence

from Phase 1

Treasure Project and/or training courses recommended to head teachers in other schools (PT3: O5) some evidence from Phase 1

General Hypothesis built from Programme Theory 4 Hypothesised Evidence of Positive School Contexts in the Treasure

Project that might support General Hypothesis built from Programme Theory 4

(with coding)

Hypothesised Evidence of Effective Mechanisms

in the Treasure Project that might support General Hypothesis built from Programme

Theory 4 (with coding)

Hypothesised Evidence of Outcomes in the Treasure Project that might support General

Hypothesis built from Programme Theory 4 (with coding) Vulnerable children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing is enhanced (O) through the participation in evidence-based interventions (M) delivered by trained adults I. KEEP THEORY – refine configurations of CMOs for successful interventions

Ask Area Project Coordinators, head teachers and trained staff in realistic interviews about CMO configurations. PS with participatory relationship with Area Project Coordinator. Interventions are valued and timetabled. (PT1:C1) √ Non PS head teacher and staff are interested in the promotion of mental health and emotional wellbeing. Interventions are valued and timetabled. (PT1:C2) √

Group facilitators are trained

(PT4: M13) √

Trained school staff or APC facilitates/delivers interventions

(PT4: M14) √

Vulnerable children are targeted for interventions (PT4: M15) √

Staff report participating children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing has been enhanced (PT4: O1) √ Parents report

participating children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing has been enhanced

(PT4: O2) some evidence from Phase 1

Participating children report that their mental health and emotional wellbeing has been enhanced

(PT4: O3) √

Group facilitators report that participating children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing has been enhanced (PT4: O4) √

5.4 Sequence of realistic interviews

The realistic interviews needed to be conducted in a specific order so that the APCs could be actively involved in selecting schools to be approached to participate in the interviews. The two APCs were to be interviewed first and then the interviews would take place with key stakeholders in two of the selected schools.

5.4.i Process of selecting the ‘successful’ schools

Before the APCs’ interviews began they were asked to identify two Project Schools that they considered to be ‘successful’ in enhancing children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing. They were also asked to identify two schools where they considered their participatory partnership work to be ‘effective’. In order to do this they were given the 26 returned and completed Project School head teacher questionnaires to sort through, but not read in detail, in order to remind themselves of the schools in order to make their decision. Schools that had not returned a questionnaire were not included in this group. Head

teachers were made aware on the head teacher questionnaire form that data from these confidential questionnaires would be used for an Educational Psychology Service

evaluation of the Treasure Project and would be collated into a document by the Treasure Team (see Appendix IV) and so it was not inappropriate that the Treasure Project APC had access to the completed questionnaires for the selection process.

5.5 Design of the APC interview

The APC interview was designed to explore their general ideas and theories as to which were the effective CMO configurations in the Treasure Project associated with successfully promoting children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing and building capacity in school communities. The interviews did not ask them specifically about their selected

schools but they were able to talk about these schools if they wished – the CMO

configurations in these schools would be explored in depth in the school interviews. The researcher thought the APCs’ knowledge about CMO configurations across the Project Schools was unique to their role and that the interview should mainly focus on this. She also wanted to know about their role in actively supporting schools through the

participatory partnership. Therefore the realistic interview questions were designed to help them to think about the four Programme Theories and about:

1) the circumstances under which successful outcomes were achieved by the Treasure Project

2) a possible new theory to explain the effective Treasure Project participatory partnership and thus refine Programme Theory 2

3) their own direct work with children and their theories and ideas as about what worked under what circumstances.

The following section describes how the question format for all the realistic interviews was constructed.

5.6 General format for all the realistic interviews

The researcher had familiarised herself with the concept of realistic interviewing described by Pawson and Tilley (1997). A generic question format was constructed to be used for all the practitioner interviews; the wording was then adjusted to accommodate specific

questions related to the role of each practitioner. The researcher was mindful of keeping the ‘teacher-learner’ feel to the interviews and ensuring that the ‘flow of understanding between interviewer and interviewee’ (Pawson and Tilley, 1997, p.166) was kept open by maintaining a curious stance to the questions. The interviews were designed around the

sharing of the four Programme Theories for comment, thus actively involving each practitioner in a collaborative position. The time available for each interview would be limited by the contexts in which the interviews took place; this was particularly true of the school interviews which would need to be an hour in duration (the length of a school lesson). It was necessary to have some kind of framework for the questions rather than ‘wander around’ topics that may not reveal any information about effective CMO configurations. Therefore a set of predetermined questions was developed, similar to a semi-structured interview format (Robson, 2002, p.270), but the order of questions or the wording could be modified by the interviewer; explanations could also be given, questions could be omitted and additional ones included if the interviewer needed to ask them in order to understand the CMO configurations better. The researcher understood that the difference in a realistic interview was that the interviewee was expected to think or theorise about the subject matter of the interview (in this case their knowledge of CMO

configurations) with support from the interviewer. Pawson and Tilley (1997) point out that the actual form of the interview will depend on the precise stage of theory development or testing which the enquiry has reached. The realistic interview in this case was looking for confirmation about theory (to some extent) and information on CMO configurations. A diagrammatic representation of the realistic interviewing process can be found in Figure 3.12.

The interviewer was aware that the interviews were being conducted two years after the Treasure Project had officially ended in some of the schools and that some of the theories and ideas would be compromised by some of the key stakeholders’ memories of CMO configurations. However, the researcher was of the opinion that robustness would be added