Current practice in schools

3.2.1 School policies

As illustrated by Table 3, all schools indicated that they have an anti-bullying policy in place. Beyond this, most schools indicated that they had a critical incident management policy (80%) and a policy for when to refer to specialist support (73%). More than half of schools also indicated that they had a policy in place for supporting pupils with major life events such as bereavement, ill health and family breakdown (60%) and a staff welfare policy (54%).

Given that there is a statutory requirement for schools to have a number of these policies in place then some caution needs to be taken when interpreting these particular findings. Where schools indicated that they did not have a particular policy in place, this could reflect a lack of awareness of the existence of that policy rather than it not being in place. This is particularly the case given that it was not always the school Principal that completed the questionnaire.

Table 3. Percentage of schools with the specified policy in place Policy

Anti-bullying policy 100%

Critical incident management policy 80%

Policy on referral of pupils for specialist support 73%

Policy on dealing with major life events 60%

Staff welfare policy 54%

Pastoral 39%

Child protection 33%

Drug/alcohol/substance misuse 19%

Relationships/sex education 16%

Positive behaviour policy 14%

Special educational needs 10%

Staff welfare/development 8%

Behaviour policy 6%

Counselling 5%

Discipline 5%

Healthy schools 5%

Attendance 5%

Curriculum 5%

Health and safety 5%

Healthy eating 5%

Health education 4%

ICT/internet 4%

Personal development 3%

Health and wellbeing policy 3%

Induction policy 3%

A range of other policies were also mentioned by schools under the ‘Other’ category. Within this, some schools indicated that rather than having specific policies around dealing with major life events, these policies were subsumed under a general pastoral care policy. In addition, a wide range of other policies were cited by individual respondents including those relating to: bereavement;

educational visits; comments/complaints; dignity and respect; inclusion; intimate care; parental links; and peer listening.

3.2.2 School practices

In relation to practice, it can be seen from Table 4 that two thirds of schools (67%) stated that they held multi-agency meetings associated with the promotion of pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing and just under half (46%) stated that they held such meetings as a routine part of the day-to-day running of the school.

As can also be seen, the promotion of pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing was found to be included explicitly as part of the school development plan in just over half (58%) of the schools who responded to the survey. This was often cited as being subsumed under pastoral care development.

Table 4. Percentage of schools with the specified practice in place Practice

Parents always welcome 100%

Clean, comfortable and welcoming environment 97%

Multi-agency meetings on promoting pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing held 67%

Pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing in the School Development Plan 58%

Multi agency-meetings held routinely 46%

3.2.3 School programmes

Table 5 lists the most commonly used programmes found in schools aimed at promoting pupils’

emotional health and wellbeing. Not surprisingly, Independent Counselling Service for Schools (ICSS) was the most common service in place with nearly nine out of ten schools making use of this. Some schools also reported using school funds to employ a counsellor full time in addition to the Department of Education provided service.

Table 5. Programmes in place in schools Programmes

Independent Counselling Service for Schools (ICSS) 89%

Healthy Schools Initiative 70%

Mood Matters 39%

Pupils’ Emotional Health and Wellbeing Diary Inserts 37%

Mind Matters 22%

SEAL 14%

Samaritans DEAL 12%

The other main programme that the majority (70%) of schools stated they used was the Healthy Schools Initiative programme. Beyond this, schools to varying degrees were using a range of other programmes. Over a third of schools were using the Mood Matters programme (39%) and similar numbers stated they were also using the pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing school diary inserts provided by the Department of Education (37%).

Given that the pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing diary inserts were sent out early in 2010 then the uptake found at this stage could be described as reasonable and many schools indicated that pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing diary inserts will be used more next year. However, a number

of schools expressed concern over their cost and a small proportion of schools (5%) indicated that they intend to use only some of the inserts or develop their own.⁸

In addition, individual schools mentioned a number of other resources and programmes. These included: MindOut; Love for Life; Women’s Aid Healthy Relationships; Baby Borrowers; YMCA counselling; PIPS; Insync; Family works; Opportunity Youth/CHILL; MensanaProgramme; Chrysillas;

Mindout; Bounce Back; ADAPT; FASA; Awareness Depression talks; and Tree of Knowledge.

3.2.4 School provision for pupils

As Table 6 illustrates, all schools reported that pupils were informed whom to contact if they needed support and the different staff they could turn to. All schools also reported that achievements were formally recognised by their school and that parents were kept informed regarding their children’s progress and achievements. In addition, a high proportion of schools stated that there were a number of other provisions in place for pupils, ranging from specific programmes on drug and alcohol use (98%) and on relationships and sex education (88%) through to the existence of school councils (90%) and the involvement of pupils in school policy making (71%).

Table 6. School provision for Pupils Activities

Pupils know who to contact when they need support 100%

Number of people to turn to 100%

Achievements formally recognised by the school 100%

Parents kept up to date on progress and achievements 100%

Clear rules and expectations 99%

Programmes targeting drug and alcohol use 98%

School council/forum in place 90%

Programmes on relationships and sex education 88%

Peer support programmes 81%

Pupils involved in decision making that impacts on emotional health and wellbeing 82%

Use of external facilitators to run programmes for pupils 76%

Pupils involved in school policy making 71%

Activities for Mental Health awareness day/week 49%

Suicide Awareness activities 41%

In contrast, much lower levels of activities were reported that were specifically related to mental health promotion and suicide. Just 22% of schools reported running activities for both mental health awareness day/week and suicide prevention. 41% reported running one of the two activities and the remaining 37% stated that they ran neither. For those schools that indicated that they do run mental health related activities a general tendency was found for these to be aimed at older pupils (KS4).

A smaller proportion of schools (8%) described some additional provisions they made for pupils.

These included: assemblies on relevant issues; ‘Aware: Defeat Depression’ talks; health promotion activities; workshops on bullying; speakers brought in as part of the pastoral care programme; peer mediation programmes; personal development activities; and notice boards on emotional health and sports activities.

8It is worth noting that diary inserts for 2011/12 and associated materials such as posters were issued in December 2010.

The introduction of the posters followed an evaluation exercise carried out on the use of inserts within schools, which identified that the cost of printing to schools and lateness in issue affected the uptake.

Overall, these findings suggest that activities are focused on typical socially acceptable behaviours such as drinking alcohol and sexual intercourse rather than taboo behaviours like poor mental health, depression and suicide.

3.2.5 School provision for teachers

As illustrated in Table 7, most schools had arrangements for Year Heads to be involved in pastoral care (96%). They had also offered training on when to refer to specialist support (89%) and how to use the ‘Understanding the Needs of Children in Northern Ireland’ (UNOCINI) assessment framework (86%). Most schools also provided mentoring to new staff in relation to dealing with stress and difficult situations (83%) and training in positive behaviour management (80%). It can also be seen that just under two thirds of schools (63%) typically used external facilitators to provide staff training.

Table 7. Staff training, development and support activities Activities offered to staff

Year Heads take an active role in pastoral care 96%

Training provided on when to refer to specialist support 89%

Understanding the Needs of Children in Northern Ireland (UNOCINI) Training 86%

Mentoring system for new teachers 83%

Training provided on positive behaviour management 80%

Use of external facilitators for staff training 63%

Opportunities provided to develop own social and emotional skills 47%

Training provided on listening skills 40%

Specialist training from Education and Library Boards 30%

Staff attended the ‘Young Minds’ training 13%

Beyond this 45% of schools indicated that they offered a range of other opportunities for staff training/development and improving welfare. These included: providing a number of social and sporting events to improve staff relations and morale; supportive staff and management who allowed those under stress or having personal issues to take time at home when possible or share workloads; counselling services provided for staff; school counsellor delivering staff training and development; and time set aside in staff in-service education training (INSET) days for health and wellbeing activities.

3.2.6 Use of audit tools

Respondents were also asked if they used any audit tools to assess progress towards becoming a more emotionally healthy school. Less than one in five schools (18%) used some audit tool with another 5% stating that they intended to do so. Of these 17%, just over half (53% or 9% of the total sample), identified that they audited pupil outcomes rather than auditing school practice. In schools that used an audit tool it was completed by: the Vice Principal (35%); Head of Pastoral Care (29%);

Senior Teachers (12%); other members of staff (24%).