Whole-school approach to emotional and mental wellbeing: research bulletin

Nearly all respondents indicated that their school was developing or implementing their whole-school approach, although the stage reached by each school varied considerably. A small group of schools said they had not yet started.

Frequent communication between schools and their dedicated implementation coordinators or local WNHSS, to support schools’ whole school approach was not consistently reported.

• Respondents from secondary schools were more likely to report frequent communication, but around one-third of respondents from both primary and secondary schools reported infrequent or no communication.
• However, respondents from schools who have had communication expressed a high level of satisfaction with the quality of support provided.

Use of the ‘Framework on embedding a whole-school approach to emotional and mental well-being’ was high and it was reported to be useful. More frequent use was reported by respondents in secondary schools, who also said they found the framework more useful than respondents from primary schools.

Similarly, most respondents from schools were using or aware of the self-evaluation tool from PHW and found it useful, although to a lesser extent than the framework. Respondents from secondary schools were using the self-evaluation tool more frequently and found it more useful than primary schools, although around one in five schools, both primary and secondary, were unaware of the self-evaluation tool.