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Leading Mental Health In Hertfordshire Schools

Spring 2015

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In this issue: P1 Feelin’ Good Week Case Study P2 What’s Up website – your feedback P3 Pastoral Lead Groups P3 MindEd Information Sessions P4 DSPL Mental Health Triage case study P4 The new name for CBPS P5 My Teen Brain Training P6 Wellbeing related Governor Updates

P6 North and East Herts ADHD Service P7 The Childline Schools Service P8 The Wellbeing service 16-17 yr olds P9 The Times Manifesto P9 New Literature Update P11 St Albans Youth Council Speak Out P13 Parent to Parent New Fact Sheet P14 Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire

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Feelin’ Good Week case study Staff and students at Chessbrook ESC hosted an event called ‘Don’t MIND if I do’. This was part of our ‘Feelin’ Good Week’ activities. The aim of the week was to discuss and dispel myths about people with poor mental health. Throughout the week, students were able to take part in the following sessions:

A circle time called ‘Think it, feel it, share it, dispel it’. This provided an opportunity to openly discuss myths about people with mental health problems.

A ‘make your day’ event. At some point in the week, staff were anonymously allocated someone and given the challenge of making their day. This could have been with a gift, some nice words or a kind gesture. This was about showing that the smallest of things could have a positive impact on how someone is feeling.

A positive images workshop. These sessions gave students the opportunity to explore how they see themselves and how others see them. They made use of face paints, mannequin heads and hair and beauty products to create 2 sided faces. The session provided an opportunity to dispel the myths associated with how people with mental health issues present.

Pledge Wall – All staff and students made individual pledges to support their own and others’ mental health.

See pages 15 & 16 for highlights of the CYP MH Task Force report published 17th March 2015

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What’s Up – Your feedback needed What’s-Up is an initiative developed by the Evidence Based Practice Unit, part of University College London and the Anna Freud Centre, with the aim of fostering and supporting young people’s mental health and emotional well-being in secondary school. There are 2 keys components of What’s-Up: 1) A series of lesson plans to be used with students in Years KS3 that go over the concept of mental health, focusing on stress and stress management. 2) A secure, online web-based portal that provides general information and psycho-education on ‘stress’, including how to understand and manage stress and is aimed at all young people not just those experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties. https://whats-up.meganexus.com The long-term aims for these materials are for them to be widely used and available in schools to improve self-esteem and confidence in young people so they will feel empowered and in control of their own emotional wellbeing. This in turn is anticipated to improve school attendance and academic performance as a result of increased emotional wellbeing. Pilot materials were made available to Hertfordshire schools during Feelin’ Good Week in February (http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/hwb/ewb/feelinggood/index.shtml). Feedback about the website, lesson plans or both can be left at the following survey link https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HXWH6LF or emailed directly to whatsup@annafreud.org. Please support the development of this exciting new resource.

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Pastoral Leads Groups – Would you like to attend one in your area?

There is a growing interest and concern in children and young people’s mental health and well-being. Over the last year, three pastoral leads groups have been set up in Hertfordshire, one in the Watford area, one in St Albans and the other in Broxbourne. The groups have given school staff an opportunity to come together and look at how their school deals with mental health and well-being, provide support to each other and gain information on services, courses and funding available to the young people and the schools.

All three groups are well attended by representatives from local schools and the staff have found the meetings very useful. They have had guest speakers from CAMHS, Youth Connexions and other relevant agencies. They have also used it as a platform to improve their schools’ mental health procedures and have arranged for key school staff to be trained in CAMHS referrals.

Public Health has helped to initiate these groups and provide key links with other organisations and the county council. Public Health would like to support each district in having their own pastoral leads group. The groups are chaired by teachers from the local area.

If you work in an area which does not have a group and you would like to be part of one, or you would like to join one of the existing groups, please email Shelley.taylor@hertfordshire.gov.uk

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Mind Ed Information Sessions

The MindEd programme is funded by the Department of Health. It has been developed and written by experts in child mental health. This free web resource encourages all professionals interacting with children and young people to become more skilled in dealing with children and young people’s mental health.

One of the innovative and exciting elements of this resource is the ability to plan and follow a CPD pathway for your specific role or profession. The MindEd Information sessions will allow you to try out one of the e-learning sessions and discuss the resource with colleagues.

The sessions will take place on Tuesday 21st April at Farnham House in Stevenage from 4-5pm and on Tuesday 28th April at County Hall, Hertford from 3.30-4.30pm. If you would like to attend one of these sessions or for more information, please contact shelley.taylor@hertfordshire.gov.uk Please have a look at the resource prior to the event at https://www.minded.org.uk

Bespoke Sessions If you have a staff team of 15 people or more and would like a MindEd Information session for your school or organisation. Please contact Shelley Taylor as above.

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DSPL and commissioning support for Mental Health

Developing Special Provision Locally (DSPL) is an approach to involve local people in reviewing and developing services and provision for children and young people aged 0-25 with special educational needs in Hertfordshire. Its aim is to remove barriers to learning and improve the life chances of children and young people. The funding comes in two streams – one is Special Educational Needs and the other is Nurture which includes Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing.

The DSPL covering Watford, Three Rivers, Bushey and Radlett has employed a Triage Lead:

“My role requires me to identify need by talking to and working with parents, children, young people and the associated settings then commission or design and deliver interventions to support the need. I have set up a Triage service that is available to provide solution focused support. The service is delivered by either direct or non-direct involvement depending on the need.

The other part of my role is to provide training, workshops and information to professionals and parents, some are delivered by me and others are commissioned as appropriate to the specialism required i.e. Children’s Physiotherapists delivering workshops on issues such as Joint Hypermobility and Families In Focus are going to deliver a parent course designed to meet the specific needs of parents of children with SEN who have other children who are affected by the needs of the SEN child. Other training commissioned by DSPL Area 9 is ELKLAN Speech, Language and Communication Training, ASD Training for parents and professionals & Attachment Disorder Training

I have run Staff Wellbeing Awareness Workshops for schools which have been quite successful but usually I am working to triage multi-complex cases and bringing other agencies on board to help meet the needs identified. I also support with case consultations (face to face and telephone) to all settings and partner agencies.

We are currently setting up a website that will be accessible to all with directories of information on local and national services, events and other support available.”

For more information about this model, please email Local Partnership Development Manager germaine.m@southwesthertspartnership.org.uk __________________________________________________________________________________

Changes to Challenging Behaviour Psychology Service (CBPS)

From the 1st of April 2015, the CBPS will be called PALMS (Positive Behaviour, Autism, Learning Disability and Mental Health Service) and is merged with Harper House services. Whilst schools cannot refer to this specialist service, it is important to keep professionals updated of changes in the provision landscape.

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My Teen Brain – Training dates available

Recent interesting research on the adolescent brain has provided an insight into adolescent development and created a better understanding of this period in a young person’s life. Where it was previously thought that brain development stopped after the first three years of life, recent scientific research has found another key period of change takes place from puberty onwards. This is a time where the brain is extremely malleable. Environment, including education, will be shaping the brain at this time and the ability to learn and be creative is at its peak. The capacity of a person to learn will never be greater than during adolescence. Childhood Support Services in Hertfordshire County Council have developed ‘My Teen Brain’ which focuses on the changes that take place in the adolescent brain and how these changes, in conjunction with experience and environment, can affect emotions, relationships, behaviours, sleep and attitudes to risk. My Teen Brain will equip school staff, and other professionals, with the knowledge of what takes place during this time of change. Feedback shows the impact it has had on altering professionals approach: “I find other methods of communication which fit their needs” “It has made me re-assess the ways I engage with teenagers” And how it has given them a deeper knowledge of adolescent development: “It has given me a greater understanding of how to communicate with teens” “I now understand there is a physical reason why teens behave as they do” My Teen Brain consists of:

a dedicated website (www.hertsdirect.org/myteenbrain) which contains in depth information for professionals and parents about how the changes in the brain can impact on teenagers and how we, as adults, can best support them during this time of transition,

a one day multi - agency training for professionals working with either adolescents (10-14) or their parents. The training looks at changes to the adolescent brain, risks and behaviours and how the learning can help a strength based approach to practice. If you would like to book onto the free one-day training please book here:

thematic training days that focus on specific topics of adolescent development,

further training to enable professionals to deliver courses to parents. Information on the changes that take place in the teen brain is available on our dedicated website: www.hertsdirect.org/myteenbrain. The website contains lots of practical information and advice for both parents/carers and professionals. For further information about My Teen Brain please contact Joella.scott@hertfordshire.gov.uk

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Governor updates

Drive change on all levels. Please remind your Governors that forthcoming updates include the following topics: 23/03/15 - Anti-Bullying - Theobalds Hotel, Cheshunt, 7-9pm 04/06/15 - Anti-Bullying - Barnwell School, Stevenage, 7-9pm 12/05/15 - Introduction to Pupil Welfare and Wellbeing - Theobalds Hotel, Cheshunt, 7-9pm (The above are free to subscribers of Governor Training / £80pp to non-subscribers) 09/06/15 - Anti-Bullying - Saffron Green, Borehamwood, 6.30-8.30pm (£16pp to subscribers / £48pp to non-subscribers) For more information please visit: http://www.hertsdirect.org/actweb/WDC/sseo/template_001.cfm?pageID=28&template=courseListing or email gov.courses@hertsforlearning.co.uk

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ADHD in East and North Herts In North Herts, the ADHD service has started some joint work with Stevenage Library. A drop in session for parents was held and one for teachers is being explored. Two ADHD Psycho Education workshops for parents with newly diagnosed children have also been delivered. The Website http://addmore.org.uk is proving to be very popular in helping Young people and their families as well as professionals in both East and North Herts. A new development led by Dr Ozer is an ADHD Service Liaison Email for Health Professionals which has been set up as a way to improve communication between Local GPs and East and North Herts Child Development Centres. Queries sent to this service are answered by one of the team. The process is being used successfully. As always, the service would welcome feedback regarding how they could improve / what service professionals would like to see provided. For further information contact Nurse Specialist michelle.atherton@nhs.net

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The Childline School Service in Hertfordshire

The ChildLine Schools Service is a free, national service provided by the NSPCC, aimed at working with every Year 5 and 6 child across the country. We work with all schools that have Year 5 & 6 pupils including Local Authority run schools, Independent schools, Academies and Free schools. This preventative, safeguarding service aims to raise awareness of abuse in all its forms, including bullying in an age appropriate way. We also help children to think about where they could go for help if they ever needed it and the overall message of the service is ‘Helping Children to Keep Happy and Safe’. We believe that empowering children to speak out helps to improve their mental health and emotional wellbeing. In Hertfordshire the service has worked with over 130 schools so far and delivered our important safeguarding messages to just over 9,300 children. Here’s some feedback from teachers and children across the county: Teacher’s Feedback ‘It was well run and extremely well organised. It is a fantastic service and a necessary one. It is good to support schools by providing this invaluable free service’ – Head teacher, Ware. ‘Very professional. Extremely important issues that need to be discussed with primary children. Our children really enjoyed the workshop session and felt comfortable in sharing their ideas about abuse. I was very pleased with how all children's comments were treated by our workshop leaders. I feel confident that pupils in our class know who the trusted adults are around them and now have a confident understanding of ChildLine and the service they provide. Thank you.’ – Head teacher, Royston. ‘A very age-appropriate resource, without shying away from the tricky issues. No answer given by the children was dismissed or treated as invaluable - all pupils felt comfortable to contribute in the workshop.’ - Year 5 Teacher, Watford. Children’s Feedback ‘The two women that came into my school changed my life. Thank you’. ‘When ChildLine came to our school they told me about different kinds of abuse that I found very useful. I think that the visit was great and now I know who to talk to in times of trouble’.

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All of this information demonstrates how important the messages are that our service gives to children. It will help to compliment any existing safeguarding work done in your school such as Protective Behaviours. The service also directly relates to point 36 of the ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ document produced by the DfE in April 2014, which states ‘Governing bodies and proprietors should consider how children may be taught about safeguarding, including online, through teaching and learning opportunities, as part of providing a broad and balanced curriculum.’ If you would like to find out more about the ChildLine Schools Service or to book a visit, please contact the Area Coordinator for Herts rachel.burrage@nspcc.org.uk Phone: 07795 970633 Service for 16 and 17 year olds Older students can access the Wellbeing Service provided by Hertfordshire Partnership Foundation Trust for adults. The Wellbeing Team (formally known as The Enhanced Primary Mental Health Service - EPMHS) delivers Improved Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) in Hertfordshire. The service provides psychological interventions for people with mild to moderate depression and anxiety disorders including Panic, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Generalised Anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress and Health Anxiety. The aim of the service is to help people across the county to be able to access psychological therapy and social care support towards achieving better psychological health and well-being, enabling them to gain or remain in employment and to participate in daily living activities We offer rapid access, via self referral or your GP, to a range of short term interventions. Our team consists of experienced mental health professionals including Health Professionals Council (HPC) Registered Psychologists, High Intensity Workers and Psychological Well-being Practitioners, who offer a variety of different types of help including:

Psycho-educational Workshops

Computerised Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CCBT), which can be accessed from the comfort of your own home

Sign-posting to other community resources

Facilitated self-help

Self-help Information

Individual Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), usually involving around 12 sessions For more information visit http://www.hpft.nhs.uk/our-services/community-services/enhanced-primary-mental-health-services/

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The Times Manifesto: in partnership with YoungMinds The Times newspaper has launched a manifesto calling for a revolution in young people’s mental health services. The manifesto has been jointly produced with Professor Tanya Byron, YoungMinds, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Great Ormond Street Hospital and calls for urgent action by government and services to improve the dire situation for thousands of children, young people and their families who are suffering. Visit http://extras.thetimes.co.uk/public/timetomind/index.html to read more.

New literature update

When to see a child and adolescent psychiatrist – Royal College of Psychologists

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases2015/childadolescentguidelines.aspx

This report is written to clarify for commissioners, providers of mental health services, child and adolescent psychiatrists, our patients and our colleagues when patients should be seen by a psychiatrist to ensure that they receive safe, high quality, evidence based care. This document is set out in six sections: 1. What is a child and adolescent psychiatrist? 2. What do child and adolescent psychiatrists do? 3. When patients should be seen by a child and adolescent psychiatrist. 4. Child and adolescent psychiatrists in different settings. 5. What are the standards to which the child and adolescent psychiatrist will work? 6. Training and research and child and adolescent psychiatrists.

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Improving Young People’s Health and Wellbeing – A Framework for Public Health The Framework has been developed as a resource to enable local areas in the delivery of their public health role for young people. It poses questions for councillors, health and wellbeing boards, commissioners, providers and education and learning settings to help them support young people to be healthy and to improve outcomes for young people. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/improving-young-peoples-health-and-wellbeing-a-framework-for-public-health __________________________________________________________________________

http://www.2020health.org/2020health/Publications/Publications-2015/Head-of-Wellbeing.html

Head of Wellbeing – An essential post for secondary schools? A discussion paper by Nuffield Health

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St Albans Youth Council continue to share their findings

Last month, members of St. Albans Youth Council gave a keynote speech on the many ways that being a member of a Youth Council can achieve the Five Ways to Wellbeing. Eleanor spoke about ‘taking notice’. “As a youth council, we took notice of issues that affect our everyday lives in the hope that we could make a difference. The mental health of young people today is a huge issue and directly affects us all, with more and more students noticed to be seeking help in schools and around 2 students in every class self- harming. During the period in their lives when young people are pressured to perform well in exams, stress can be the enemy. The American Medical Association has recognized stress as the basic cause of more than 60% of illnesses and disease – so we took notice that being stressed has long term health and economic effects too. We noticed that if we can identify the main issues that impact students in relation to mental health then we are better able to identify what support needs to be introduced and improved within schools. To find out what was going on with our peers we decided to conduct a schools based survey. We wanted to find out if students knew that they could seek help at school and also if they valued the services available to them both in and outside of the school gates. We collected data from just under 2000 students from a total of 11 schools across the county. Taking the top three issues cited from each school, we noticed that ‘family and ‘exam pressure’ gave the most concern to students. This may be seen as typical, considering the demographic, however, we also noticed that 16% of students surveyed may be cutting, 20% may be misusing alcohol or other harmful substances and 15% may have eating disorders. The data was written up and in 2011 we published our findings. Our Mental Health Report has been noticed by many others and we are very proud that it has made a significant difference within our district and across the county. It was recognised as being of significant value and in 2013 we received a bursary to share its findings at the International Conference on Youth Mental Health. In the last year, we have produced a supplementary report, having collected data from a further 1000+ students and teachers too. This second piece of research corroborates our original findings and threw up some more shocking stats. For instance, over half of teachers responding had noticed an increase in the number of problems students were facing and seeking support for over the last 2 years. A truly staggering

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statistic from our survey suggests that 99% of students would not think to approach a member of the pastoral care team for help. We have thought about why this might be and have concluded that a likely explanation is that the role of pastoral care staff is often blurred with other school roles such as attendance and discipline administration. Interestingly, teachers are still the first professional a student would go to for signposting for help, however the internet is now as popular a source of information as teachers were two years ago. Over and above the obvious dominance the internet wields, this data also shows that teachers are the most accessible professional for students and doctors, it would seem, are the least accessible to students. If this is the case, government spending for assessment, referrals and interventions could be improved by focusing improving services that young people feel happy to access from or within schools. Our data also highlighted that 60% of teachers have not had mental health training and of the 40% who have, over half feel they need more. We are delighted to tell you that as a result of taking notice and investigating these issues, last year schools in St Albans District set up a ‘Pastoral Heads’ group to reflect on and improve where possible the current state of pastoral care. This is a wonderful outcome and we cannot wait to take notice of more advancements in mental health support within schools in the future.” Follow this link to a press release about this speech and the powerful workshop the council delivered that identified the gap in any meaningful provision that occurs during the time between when a young person asks their GP for help and actually receiving any help: https://www.youthconnexions-hertfordshire.org/about-youth-connexions/news/young-people-influence-decision-makers-in-st-albans/ Speeches can all be accessed at https://stalbansyouthcouncil.wordpress.com NB different research can lead to different findings. Please also see the results from the latest Hertfordshire Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire (HRBQ), article on p14. __________________________________________________________________________________________

National news

Don’t forget to visit the Young Minds website for national news and updates: http://www.youngminds.org.uk/news/news

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We do not accept responsibility for the availability, reliability or content of the items

included in this newsletter and do not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them.

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New fact sheet for schools - The Parent2Parent® programme National research has repeatedly demonstrated that parents and carers are the most influential factor in the long-term academic success of their children. In addition, recent research in Hertfordshire has identified that strong partnerships between schools and parents are a key factor in raising attainment by pupils across all phases. In response to the evidence and requests from schools, Herts for Learning (HfL) has developed a parental education programme, Parent2Parent®, aimed at helping parents and carers to improve the learning experience at home by embedding key teaching and learning behaviours. The Parent2Parent® programme provides an entirely new support service to schools, enabling parents and carers to gain confidence and new skills that will actively support learning at home. By offering this new, education-focused support programme it is believed that: • children’s educational outcomes will improve • parental involvement and relationships with schools will become stronger

To receive the full fact sheet, if you are interested in finding out more or subscribing to the Parent2Parent® programme for your school, please contact Julie Garstang at Herts for Learning, p2p@hertsforlearning.co.uk or call 01438 844853.

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HRBQ

Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire 2014 – The Results Are In! Over 7400 children and young people from over 79 schools took part in the latest survey which was funded by Public Health. The 2014 questionnaire asked several new questions about caring responsibilities, disability, self-harm and physical activities (specifically for primary school Ofsted). Pupils take part from Years 5, 6, 8 and 10. The survey is run every two years. Some of the results showed that;

93% of primary pupils (94% in 2012) and 90% of secondary pupils (91% in 2012) felt that it was important to attend school regularly.

88% of primary pupils (91% in 2012) and 62% of secondary pupils (60% in 2012) feel their work is marked so they can see how to improve.

There has been an increase from 6% to 15% of pupils who had received a chat message which scared or upset them.

Secondary pupils who have viewed adult-only material online has dropped from 2012 to 2014 by 11%.

Pupils were asked if they ‘quite often’ or ‘very often’ worried about being bullied; 20% of primary pupils (21% in 2012) and 6% of secondary pupils (15% in 2012) agreed.

When asked if they had increased their sporting activity in the last year 77% of primary pupils said yes.

Only 2% of secondary pupils said they ‘never’ or ‘hardly ever’ did any physical activities.

A Hertfordshire Summary, District and Themed Reports will be available shortly. For further information, please contact Shelley Taylor at shelley.taylor@hertfordshire.gov.uk ___________________________________________________________________________ If you have any content you would like to submit for the next edition or to request particular coverage, please email camhs.commissioning@hertfordshire.gov.uk with ‘Newsletter’ in the subject line.

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The Children and young people’s mental health taskforce report

The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Taskforce was set up last year. On the 17th March 2015, they published their report: ‘Future in mind – promoting, protecting and improving our children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing’. It makes a number of proposals the government wishes to see by 2020. These include:

tackling stigma and improving attitudes to mental illness introducing more access and waiting time standards for services establishing ‘one stop shop’ support services in the community improving access for children and young people who are particularly vulnerable

The report sets out how much of this can be achieved through better working between the NHS, local authorities, voluntary and community services, schools and other local services. It also makes it clear that many of these changes can be achieved by working differently, rather than needing significant investment.

Here are some of the highlights in relation to schools: Lead commissioners should ensure that schools are given the opportunity to contribute to the development of Transformation Plans. A requirement for all partners, commissioners or providers, to sign up to a series of agreed principles (including) collaborative practice… involving schools Next steps - national activity testing clear access routes between schools and specialist services for mental health by extending the recently established co-commissioning pilots to more areas

o More collaboration with schools o PSHE Association guidance and

lesson plans on mental health for key stage 1 -4

o Evidence based school counselling strategy

o New Ofsted judgement o Named contact in mental health

services for schools o Named lead for mental health in

schools o Joint training o Treatment away from traditional

settings o Recommendation for changes in

Initial Teacher Training

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The Department for Education (DfE) is leading work to improve the quality of teaching about mental health within Personal, Social, Health, and Economic (PSHE) lessons in schools, and has commissioned the PSHE Association to produce guidance for schools in teaching about mental health safely and effectively, which will be available in spring 2015. Alongside the guidance will be a series of lesson plans covering key stages 1-4 (5-16 year olds). For older pupils, they will address such topics as self-harm and eating disorders, as well as issues directly concerned with school life, such as managing anxiety and stress around exams. DfE is developing an evidence-based schools counselling strategy to encourage more and better use of counsellors in schools, with practical and evidence-based advice to ensure quality provision that improves children’s outcomes and achieves value for money. This will be published in spring 2015 Inspection is a key lever to drive improvement. The new draft Ofsted inspection framework ‘Better Inspection for All’ includes a new judgement on personal development, behaviour and welfare of children and learners. The following is proposed to improve communication and access:

Create an expectation that there is a dedicated named contact point in targeted or specialist mental health services for every school

Create an expectation that there should be a specific individual responsible for mental health in schools, to provide a link to expertise and support to discuss concerns about individual children and young people, identify issues and make effective referrals.

Improving children’s access to timely support from the right service through developing a joint training programme to support lead contacts in mental health services and schools.

Mental health practitioners delivering interventions should follow existing good practice and give young people and families the choice to receive treatment away from traditional NHS mental health settings. This might mean that staff see them in public places, such as cafes and restaurants, or in schools, or home. For schools, the Carter Review of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) reported in January. It recommended commissioning a sector body to produce a framework of core content for ITT which would include child and adolescent development. The full report can be downloaded from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/improving-mental-health-services-for-young-people

Mental health leads in schools have existed in Hertfordshire for several years. If your school has not yet nominated a lead or to update details, please email

camhs.commissioning@hertfordshire.gov.uk Please encourage colleagues from schools to have a named lead in place.