Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families

• Overview

  We are pleased to announce that the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families has been commissioned by the Department for Education to deliver an exciting new project which aims to evaluate pioneering ways of supporting the mental health and wellbeing of school pupils.

  As part of this we are looking to work with schools who want to improve the mental health and wellbeing of their pupils! We are looking for primary and secondary schools to take part in our 2018 – 2020 research programme to implement and evaluate a range of mental health interventions for school pupils in years 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9.

  Pupils and staff will be asked to complete online questionnaires before and after programme delivery, which will give an indication of the mental health and wellbeing of participating pupils and whether this changes over time.

  Benefits for participating schools

  Following the Government’s Green Paper on Mental Health, this is a valuable opportunity to introduce school-focused mental health interventions with our support and expertise as one of the UK’s leading evidence-based children’s mental health charities.

  There are a number of benefits to taking part, including:

  • Providing your pupils with whole-class mental health and wellbeing programmes with support from leading experts in child mental health.
  • Free mental health and wellbeing training from mental health professionals for selected school staff.
  • An evaluation feedback report containing an aggregate summary of your pupils’ responses and outcomes on key mental health and wellbeing measures.This will provide a snapshot of the challenges faced by your school’s pupils, and can be used to target support and inform planning evidence for Ofsted and whole-school practice.
  • Contributing to the wider evidence base on what works for school-based mental health support and how it can best be delivered.
  • A letter of thanks from the Department for Education acknowledging your school’s important role in this project.
  • £1,000 remuneration in recognition of administrative commitments.