UPDATE NO 432 04 December 2020

School and college staff wellbeing: report

DfE have published a literature review examining evidence on school and college staff wellbeing in England, the UK and comparable sectors. Key themes include:

1. engagement from senior leaders
2. implementing whole school approaches
3. provision of support, mentoring and training
4. fostering resilience and mindfulness
5. promoting healthy and active lifestyles
6. ensuring a positive work environment.

Following the launch of the DfE’s Teacher Recruitment and Retention strategy, an expert group was created to advise DfE on the wellbeing of staff in schools and colleges.

This literature review was commissioned to support the work of the expert advisory group to examine recent evidence on school and college staff wellbeing in England.

The main aim of this review is to establish the effectiveness of the existing support available to enable and promote staff wellbeing in schools and further education (FE) colleges in England.

This literature review was written in 2019 prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The full report is here

Applying behavioural insights to increase female students’ uptake of STEM subjects at A level

The DfE has published research into increasing the number of young women choosing STEM subjects at A-level using a parent-focused approach. 

This research reviews ways to overcome the barriers that young women are up against to increase the uptake of STEM subjects at A level.

This research will be of interest to:

• academics
• education policy professionals
• others interested in diversity in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM)

The research contributes to developing the existing evidence base on what works to improve STEM uptake, particularly for girls.

The full report is here

Children in Care NHS Partnership Project

Following today’s meeting of DCSs and Lead Members in the South East, the Children in Care NHS Partnership Project has published three new documents.

For further information, contact Andrea King (details below)

Mental Health Ambition

Roles and Responsibilities

South East – Children in Care Emotional/Mental Health Tariff

Future dates for Network meetings

AD Safeguarding: Friday 11 December 2020 –  for more information from Mark Evans (contact details below)

QA Network: Wednesday 9 December. Following the recent meeting of the network, new confidential documents have been posted on the QA restricted pages – access to these pages and more information from Diane Williamson (contact details below)

Fostering Network: 10.30am Thursday 28 January. More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

SEND SE19: more information from Tracey Maytas (contact details below)

Data Benchmarking: Thursday 10 December 2020. More information from Alastair Lee (contact details below)

AD Education: Friday 29 January 2021 – 1.30pm – 3.30pm – more information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board: Tuesday 19 January 2021. More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

PHE COVID-19: mental health and wellbeing surveillance report

The COVID-19: mental health and wellbeing surveillance report is published by PHE and routinely updated. It covers population mental health and wellbeing in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.

See especially Chapter 7 – Children and Young People based on weekly data drawn from the UCL COVID-19 Social Study and other sources up to week 38 of 2020 (week ending 18 September) and other academic sources 

There are sections on 

• COVID-19 impact on children and young people’s mental health; 
• Suicidal thoughts and self-harm
• Reported symptoms of mental ill health
• Changes in reported symptoms over the period of lockdown
• How mental health and wellbeing may vary by characteristics
• Experiences, risk and protective factors associated with coronavirus (COVID-19) and mental health outcomes
• Weekly tracking data – Adults who live with children and young people
• Remote services – children and young people

The children who no-one knows what to do with – Children’s Commissioner Report

“The children who no-one knows what to do with” explains the failure of local and national government to take responsibility for these children, and sets out what action is needed by government – both local and national – to fix this broken system.

The report summarises the findings of three years of work by the Children’s Commissioner’s Office and provides context for two further reports the Commissioner is publishing today (‘Private provision in children’s social care’ and ‘Stability index 2020’).

“Ideally, no child should grow up in an institution.

“Yet there are 6,570 children currently growing up in children’s homes in England.

“These children are here for a number of reasons – normally because their needs are so complex that it is not considered possible to meet them within a family home environment.

“Occasionally older children request to be in a children’s home because they do not feel like they want a “new family”, as they see foster care.

“Often, children are put in children’s homes because of a lack of suitable alternatives.

“In 2017/18, £1.25bn was spent on providing these homes – an average cost of just under £200,000 per child per year.”

Anne Longfield: My vision for a better care system

On Tuesday, 24 November the Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield OBE, presented a speech online where she reflected on what she has learnt from children and young people in the 6 years she has been Commissioner, and how they have felt about the care and support they have received.

Drawing on new research conducted by her office and stories shared with the Commissioner, including through the CCO helpline, the keynote laid bare the flaws in the social care system and outlined the ways it must change to become more ambitious for children.

Anne was joined by Lemn Sissay MBE, a BAFTA nominated international prize-winning writer and a passionate advocate for reform within the care system and Sophia, a care leaver and coordinator for our IMO project. We would like to say a massive thank you as well to the five children in care; Alicia, Azizah, Luke, Sophie and Tamara who took part in a panel discussion, answered questions from the audience and shared their experiences.

Below is the full speech given by Anne Longfield. The whole event can be watched back online on YouTube, and you can find the slides here, and an overview of our consultation with care-experienced children and young people about the care review here.

Nuffield Foundation: Introducing the changing face of early childhood series

In this introduction, NF provides the context for their Changing face of early childhood in the UK series and a summary of the research projects funded by the Foundation that underpin it. 

The series aims to answer these six questions

• What does research tell us about how effective key early childhood policies have been?
• What are the implications of current changes, including the impact of COVID-19, on young children’s lives now and for the future?
• Are young children’s lives improving? Are they better prepared for schools Are they happier and healthier?
• What developments have been positive and should be built upon?
• What don’t we know and where are the gaps in data and research?
• What needs to change in order to improve the lives of young children?