Written evidence from Youth Connexions Hertfordshire (CMH0211)
Executive Summary:
- Students and teachers are concerned with the poor mental health of their peers, their students and themselves.
- With less money and services overwhelmed by a growing need for professional help, schools and indeed young people need to be clear on what positive steps they can take to support and maintain good mental health in their communities and prevent, as much as possible, the decline of young peoples’ mental health.
- Academic evidence suggests that peer messages are an effective and cost efficient method that can have a profound impact on learners and their communities.
- Academic evidence also supports co-production as an effective and cost efficient method for ensuring services meet the needs of the communities they serve
- Youth Connexions Hertfordshire would like to present to the committee the work they are doing in schools to promote, develop and sustain emotional wellbeing in students and across the community using co production and peer messages.
Introduction:
Connexions Hertfordshire is an unique organisation. We deliver an offer to young people which is both universal and targeted, countywide and locally focused. We have embedded co-production and developed an array of partnerships to increase our impact and reach. Part of Hertfordshire County Council, we provide youth work, information advice and guidance, work related learning, outdoor education and support for young people. Our work is focused on 11 to 19 and up to 25 for young people with learning disabilities. We also provide support for young people leaving care up to the age of 21. We have local reach via youth venues, one stops and detached work, and we are working in all Hertfordshire schools. Our integrated structure combining central policy teams with delivery teams in 5 double districts offers an integrated service responsive to national and local priorities. Our integrated approach has delivered positive outcomes for young people including Hertfordshire achieving one of the lowest NEET rates in the UK. We are submitting this evidence because we believe that this programme of study has a significant role to play in education and will effectively promote emotional wellbeing in children and young people and has the potential to impact their schools and communities.
The aim of YCH youth work is to enable young people to:
• Make informed decisions based on the information which is available to them, thereby avoiding risky behaviour.
• Be confident that they can present their views, including those of others, and influence decisions.
• Develop resilience by knowing how they can help themselves and others.
• Recognise when they need support and where they can go to access it.
• Be able to recognise and develop healthy relationships thereby being less vulnerable to child sexual exploitation (CSE).
• Develop a sense of purpose and self-belief, and recognise what they contribute to society thus ensuring a sense of emotional well-being and positive mental health.
2. It should not be underestimated how deeply educational settings can support or detract from our children’s emotional wellbeing, so it is entirely appropriate that educational settings should play a significant role in;
a) Ensuring students can develop emotional resilience
b) Detecting when students are not coping well
c) Intervening appropriately[1] when students’ emotional wellbeing is at risk of becoming a MH issue or crisis.
3. From 2010 onwards, students in Hertfordshire have been surveying their peers and have data from thousands of young people to suggest that school can be contraindicated in terms of their good mental health (Roberts 2010, Herts Manifesto 2013/14/15).
4. The relationships students have with each other, as well as with their teachers, can be critical to their emotional wellbeing. Bullying despite all our efforts is still an issue for many children with social media playing giving a new and uncontrollable (for now) dimension to the problem. Students tell us that their relationship with their teacher is one of the most important factors in how much effort they put in, whether they can focus in class and in some cases, if they will even turn up.
5. On the other side of our work, we hear from schools and teachers worried sick about what more they can do to support the rising tide of students who are self-harming and or depressed. Both teachers and students are looking desperately for help and support with what feels like a tidal wave of poor mental health. Interestingly, research has shown that students do better when they; feel safe, feel connected to their community and connected to their school (Brooks et al 2014). So it would seem in many cases, they may be looking outside of themselves for answers that may lie within their gift.
6. There is also a growing academic body of evidence that show peer messages are more effective than those delivered by ‘experts.’ Peer to peer mentoring within schools, where students are given tools to recognise issues and to help each other has been shown to be more effective in suicide prevention and mental health than empowering teachers with other methods (Wasserman et al 2015).
7. Youth Connexions Hertfordshire have been working with the Royal Society for Public Health and delivering their Youth Health Champions Course in schools for the last three years. This is an innovative programme of study that supports groups of learners to become peer educators and advocates within their community. We have seen that Youth Health Champions (YHC’s) can make a positive impact to the health goals of students, schools and the wider community by ensuring learners understand a range of health issues related to their emotional wellbeing.
8. The course provides a level 2 certificate and typically includes 4 units of study[2]
YHC 1 Health Improvement – this unit will provide a basic understanding of what a healthy lifestyle is and look at the learners own attitude to health
YHC 2 Research Health Improvement Facilities – learners will research a health improvement facility in their local area
YHC 3 - Emotional wellbeing
YHC 4 Deliver a health improvement message to a group of peers – this can be achieved through school assemblies, newsletters, flyers, posters etc.
9. Youth Connexions Hertfordshire have developed the study programme for the emotional wellbeing . Our students consider how the brain works and how their emotions impact their health. They explore Mindset Theory (Dweck 2006), their attitude to health and what health and happiness means to them. They consider individual and community resilience and the fine balance between the two and then use business management tools such as the Theory of Constraints (Goldratt 1992) to develop goal setting and planning skills. Students learn about self-efficacy and how hormones, sleep and nutrition can impact well-being. And having considered the biology of their emotions and the newest theories form positive psychology, they start to cascade the messages they feel are most useful to their peers. These Health Champions go on to become a community resource, active in their schools pastoral work and engaged in co-production with services commissioners.
10. Independent research is evaluating this work in 6 secondary schools and will be available in the spring but feedback from schools and students as well as the RSPH already suggests that this programme has the potential to play a significant role in supporting schools deliver the kind of PHSE curriculum that students need and deserve and one that will promote emotional wellbeing.
Recommendations:
11. As an existing programme that provides a recognised qualification, independently evaluated (and soon to be evidence based) we would recommend that the committee investigate further to establish the potential here for a nationally funded programme
Appexdices
A selection of outcomes and feedback from schools and students:
Last year, one of you groups won the national award for best peer message and in doing so is inspiring professionals and young people around the country -
Young women from St Albans win national Youth Health Champion Campaign Award
The winner of this year’s national Youth Health Champion Campaign Award is a group of students from St Albans who, supported by Youth Connexions, developed a sex education workshop for schools as part of their training to become Health Champions.
Youth Health Champions are young volunteers who are trained to develop and deliver engaging health campaigns for their peers. They also act as ‘signposters’ for other young people, directing them to other health professionals, services and resources.
The Youth Health Champion Campaign Award is supported by Public Health England. It was established to recognise young people who have developed and delivered an inspirational health campaign. Applications for the award this year have been judged by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) Youth Health Movement’s young advisory group.
The winners of this year’s award are Julia Watson, Katie Jones, Julia Halligan, and Madeleine Hames, all members of St Albans Youth Council. Their view was that current sex education in some schools was inadequate, leaving some young people poorly prepared and at risk of physical, emotional and social harm. As part of their health campaign, these youth Health Champions asked other young people what information and guidance they felt they needed. They developed a workshop; including a video which they put together to help young people consider different messages about sex education. The workshop has been delivered to the rest of the St Albans Youth Council and Year 12 students at St Albans Girls' School. In future the workshop will be delivered to all students at the school in Year 10 and above.
Julia Halligan and Katie Jones
The award was presented to the winners by Duncan Selbie, Chief Executive of Public Health England, on 14 July 2016 at the RSPH’s Youth Health Movement Conference entitled ‘How the physical, mental and cultural aspects of the school day make for good health’.
Ellie Appleyard and Emma Beswetherick collected the award on behalf of their peers from St Albans Girls’ School and members of SAYC.
Photo courtesy of RSPH.
Ellie said: “As a longstanding member of SAYC, who has been heavily involved in our mental health work, both as chair of the overall council and the mental health subgroup, I am very proud of the youth councillors who have taken this opportunity and are using it to continue such important work. There are many aspects of the mental health of young people that have been overlooked, and the work of the RSPH youth health champions in St Albans is helping to remedy this. Winning this national award will help to raise the profile of this work and allow it to continue.”
Richard Roberts, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services said “Congratulations to these dynamic young women. They have done an outstanding job in raising awareness of this extremely important issue, and are a shining example of community spirit.”
Testimony from Schools:
Priory school
Priory now hosts a regular community health conference for feeder schools and this autumn will host a schools mental health conference for secondary schools and their pupils
Their students have created a PHSE curriculum for primary students by students, which has been used by local schools and bought by schools further afield
“The youth health champion course has had a huge impact on the wellbeing of the students that have taken part. They have grown in confidence, developed leadership skills and in many cases, made new friends. They have developed a wide set of skills and a plethora of understanding when it comes to health and wellbeing of a young person. This course has also had wider impact on our school community with the students planning awareness weeks, leading assemblies and delivering staff briefings.The course has proven to be an invaluable resource for my students. They have developed skills that will undoubtedly serve them well at university and in their chosen career paths. As a school, we are excited about embedding this course into our practice even further, as part of our SMSC provision I would whole heartedly recommend this course to any school who want to promote health and wellbeing within their community.”
Katie Southall,
Asst. Head, Priory School Hitchin.
Hertswood Academy
The course has been fantastic, the tutors have led these sessions brilliantly and the students have found the sessions and course engaging and interesting.
The impact that the course has had on the group is tangible, many of the students have gained confidence with their ability and have learned to co-operate with each other. One student in particular was painfully shy at the beginning of the course and struggled to communicate with other students, she has now gained much more confidence and the course has enable her to reflect on her own strengths and things she would like to improve about herself. The students are enthusiastic about delivering their peer messages and it is fantastic to see them working together to tackle topics which have such a significant impact on emotional well-being. A couple of students within in the group have struggled with their own emotional health in the past and have felt comfortable in the supportive environment to be able to share this with the group. Trainers have ensured that all safeguarding concerns are addressed and flagged to myself and DSP. Their support, perseverance and encouragement of the group is unparalleled.
The setting up of the emotional well-being group within school I am sure will have a positive impact in helping signpost and getting the students to talk to their peers about emotional wellbeing.
There are no negative aspects of the course from my point of view.
Charlotte Clelland, Asst. Deputy Head
Articles:
Student Testimonials:
F. Year 10: “Throughout the course I have become more and more confident. I’ve found it useful to discuss issues and it has helped me overcome my own. The course has taught me a lot about resilience and emotional well-being, not only why we can feel up or down, but how to cope and help others. I feel confident supporting and signposting others now.”
F Year 10 Student: I loved the course! It has enabled me to support others and understand why well-being is so important. It’s allowed me to make and build new friends
F Year 10: Before I started this course I was dealing with a lot of stress. The course has allowed me to understand how to deal with my stress and what can cause me to feel stressed. The challenging part was completing the written tasks as it took up a lot of time however, when it was done it felt amazing. I’ve really enjoyed the whole experience and hope that what we have done will help others
F Year 10: I found it challenging to really explain my opinion but I will now think differently and I will think more before I speak and act so that in turn I can be in more control of my situation. I feel I know about how to help others.
F Year 10: After completing this course I feel much more confident in discussing my ideas and have increased my knowledge in health immensely. Every session gave me a new insight and since researching facilities in the area I would love to contribute to improving them. I particularly enjoyed preparing and presenting the peer message as it gave me a chance to learn more about drink spiking myself as well as educating others. The short film Harry and I created was a high point in the process. Despite the stress of the commitment I have thoroughly enjoyed every session and every debate as it has made me think outside my own life and into others. I was surprised at the range of topics we learnt and discussed and have definitely enjoyed the whole course.
F Year 12: I have found the RSPH course incredibly beneficial as I feel I’ve grown a lot as a person over the past few months and a think a lot of that is down to this course. It has made me look at and really examine the society in which I live and begin to questions why things are the way they are. I feel more informed about what health is and recognise the challenges in actually defining health. I feel more able to accurately comment on services local to me and more able to have an opinion as I am more informed and feel like I am able to have a big impact in my community as a peer educator. I feel empowered to make the changes I feel need to be made.
F Year 10: I have completed my folder and peer message and I am reflecting on the course as a whole. It has been such an experience, I have loved it all. I feel so informed and ready to share knowledge and advise my peers. I feel proud of my peer message and the RSPH work I have joggled with my school / extracurricular work. I know that the information I have learnt on this course I will remember for life and I will continue to share with others, even as an adult.
Appendix:
Brooks, F., Magnusson, J., Klemera, E., Chester, K., Spencer, N., and Smeeton, N. (2015) HBSC
England National Report 2014. University of Hertfordshire; Hatfield, UK.
Dweck. C. (2010) Mindsets: The new psychology for success, New York : Random House
Goldratt, E. (1992), The Goal Great Barrington, MA : North River Press,
Roberts, D. (2010), A report on the awareness of, and possible need for, extended provision of both mental health and counselling services for secondary school students in Hertfordshire. available at http://www.chimat.org.uk/resource/item.aspx?RID=135110
Wasserman .D et al 2015, ‘A Randomised Controlled Trial of School-based Suicide Preventive Programmes; The Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe Study (SEYLE)’The Lancet, online 9 January 2015.
Youth Connexions 2013/14/15 Herts Manifesto Available at: https://www.youthconnexions-hertfordshire.org/youth-work/young-peoples-democracy/herts-young-peoples-manifesto/