Hertfordshire Feelin’ Good Week
| Description | Promote positive mental health for children and adolescents in Hertfordshire. |
|---|---|
| Setting | Schools, youth clubs and parenting programmes. |
| Populationting | All children and young people aged 0-18 years living in Hertfordshire. |
| Intervention summary | One week each year designated to promote positive mental health based on distribution of grants, information packs and resources to schools and provision of training and information for all professionals working with children and young people. |
| Outcome Summary | Number of children and young people participating in the programme. |
| Startup Cost | In the first year we had £5000 to fund printing, prizes and the grants. We also received an invaluable £8000 from Herts Together to enable us to produce large folders for each school in the county, as well as other organisations and settings working with children and young people. For 2006-7 we had a budget of £15 000 which was made up of health and social care funding. It covered resources and activities that took place on Feelin’ Good Day and also enabled us to distribute additional resources, provide more grants than previously and fund prizes for competitions during the Feelin’ Good Week. |
| Running Cost | £15 000 for 2007 The website that we have set up for this year was free as it is hosted on an NHS site and is being developed by the Service Development Officer for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), it is constantly evolving and expanding with more resources and information. We have allocated £15 000 for the 2006-7 project to fund resources, printing, merchandise, prizes and grants for both Feelin’ Good Day and Feelin’ Good Week |
| Funding | The project is funded by CAMHS and additional funding from other partners for specific projects. This money was allocated to us by the multi-agency steering group. |
| Started | The first Feelin’ Good Week was held 10-16th October 2005. Feedback indicated that it would be better to be held in February to provide support before exams and link in with a particularly stressful time of year for a lot of children and young people. To ensure momentum was not lost in between, a Feelin’ Good Day was held on the 10th October 2006 with the second Feelin’ Good Week in 5-11th February 2007. February dates for 2008 are in the process of being confirmed. |
| Ended | Ongoing |
| Location | Hertfordshire, England |
| Contact |
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Background
The key aim of this project is to promote positive mental health for children and adolescents across Hertfordshire. The project works by encouraging professionals working with children and young people to focus their work (using resources provided), during the Hertfordshire Feelin’ Good Week, on promoting positive emotional and/or mental health, improved wellbeing and developing resilience. The project aims to reduce the stigma surrounding this subject. In addition, it empowers children and young people to ensure that when and if they need any additional support, they know what is available and where and how to access it. It also provides training and information for voluntary and statutory professionals, and reinforces the belief that child and adolescent mental health is everyone’s responsibility.
What is the problem you are trying to solve?
No particular problem, but we are aiming to improve the emotional/mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in Hertfordshire.
What local organisations are involved?
Involving local organisations is key to the success of Feelin’ Good Week. These include health, social care, youth service and other local initiatives such as Healthy Schools, Herts Together and Hertfordshire Connexions.
Health and Social Care fund the main project. Other local initiatives, such as Herts Together and Hertfordshire Connexions, have provided funding to enable us to develop the resource folders and purchase 'exam stress, stress brains'. These were squidgy stress balls in the shape of brains that we commissioned for Connexions workers and school nurses to use with young people on fighting exam stress.
How many people are running this project and who are they?
The project is led by two people and supported by a multi-agency and mulitidisciplinary steering group. The steering group has ten members made up of our key partners from across statutory and voluntary services working with children and young people. The two leading staff on the Feelin’ Good Week initiative are the service development officer for child and adolescent mental health in Hertfordshire, and the Healthy Schools emotional/mental health and wellbeing adviser. As part of the success of 2005 project, we have been able to develop this unique Healthy Schools post, funded by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, which aim to support schools in becoming more emotionally healthy.
What local population are you targeting?
This project covers all children and young people aged 0-18 years living in Hertfordshire.
How many people are you targeting?
There are approximately 250 000 children and young people in Hertfordshire and we aim to reach as many of these as we can through schools, youth clubs, children’s centres, and parenting programmes.
Interventions
What interventions are you using to address the problem?
We utilise a number of methods to support Feelin’ Good Week. Our website contains a wealth of resources and information for schools and other organisations working with children and young people. These information resources can be used as part of personal, social, health education (PSHE) lessons, assemblies and youth clubs, for example. In 2005, we developed a resource folder for every school that contained age-appropriate resources, as well as details of local and national services and for emotional and mental health.
We signpost schools and organisations wanting speakers and professionals to run workshops and assemblies to support the themes of the week. We also offer grants to enable professionals to access funding for activities and events that will contribute to the aims of the week.
In 2005, we held an art competition and received almost 500 entries. In 2007, in anticipation of the week, we are hosting a logo and writing competition. The winning logo will be used on merchandise that we provide for the week.
Is the project design based on evidence? If so, please state reference.
No.
Outcome
What outcomes or planned outcomes are you measuring?
In the first year of the project, we qualitatively measured feedback from schools and other organisations on the usefulness of the resource packs using questionnaires. We also requested information on the impact of the grants and how many young people were involved. For the next Feelin’ Good Week, we will be using qualitative and quantitative measures to assess how well we are achieving the aims of the week. Those who were given funding were asked to discuss with children and young people what they had learnt and professionals were asked whether they would continue to use resources throughout year. As part of the planning for Feelin’ Good Week 2008 we will be attending a series of events and activities covering all age groups that will enable us to ask young people if they are aware of Feelin’ Good. This will help promote the week and its aims, and reveal what children and young people want to see during the week.
Do you have any outcomes or results yet? If so, what are they?
From the 58 grants that we distributed for the first Feelin’ Good Week, 12 000 children participated in the assemblies, activities and events that we funded. We also know that just under 3000 other children and young people also took part in events run by health visitors, parenting coordinators, school nurses, Connexions and youth workers. Early indications for Feelin’ Good Week 2007 show that at least 18 785 children and young people were involved and we were able to provide 88 grants to fund activities.
The feedback from the first week was enormously positive. The resources distributed were very well received and schools and other organisations identified emotional and mental health as being a key issue needing further resources, training and information. In the first year we only provided grants to schools but it was felt that this needed to be widened to any agency. In response to this we have taken a number of steps to attract applications from across voluntary and statutory services. We have set up the Feelin’ Good website which acts as a centre for free downloadable information and resources on emotional and mental health. This has been accessed from across the world and is constantly being updated with new information, services and links. The feedback also meant that we were able to evidence a need for the Healthy Schools Emotional/Mental Health and Wellbeing role as a means of providing a specific resource for schools on this subject. In response to the 2007 week we are in the process of setting up a resource library to cover the county and the 0-18 age group that professionals can borrow to use with individuals or groups. These will include photocopiable work books, board games and CD Roms that can be used to stimulate activities on promoting positive emotional and mental health.
Is your project relevant to a government target or guideline?
The project contributes to each of the Every Child Matters five outcomes, in particular, being healthy 1 . The five Every Child Matters outcomes are: Being Healthy, Staying Safe, Enjoying and Achieving, Making a Positive Contribution, and Achieving Economic Wellbeing.
This project also enables schools to meet the Ofsted criteria on contributing to the emotional health of their pupils 2 .
Feedback
What obstacles did you have to overcome to set up this project?
Once partners recognised we were committed to this project and that it was well worth their time and resources to be part of something so innovative and on such an important subject, we found that engagement was much easier. A lot of groundwork was required to get sign up early on.
What have you learned about the project so far?
We have learnt that signing up partner agencies and the voluntary sector is key to the success of this project. It is important to involve as many professionals as possible. In 2007, we are widening the availability of grants to any service working with children and young people in Hertfordshire rather than just the schools. We did this in 2005 when we piloted the week and there were a large number of non-school settings who wanted to apply.
What would you do differently?
In an ideal world, we would have a member of staff committed to this project full time but, unfortunately, it is a small part of both of our roles.
References:
- HM Government. Every Child Matters: Change for Children. 2004. http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/_files/F9E3F941DC8D4580539EE4C743E9371D.pdf (accessed 17 April 2007).
- Ofsted. Healthy minds: Promoting emotional health and well-being in schools. July 2005. http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/assets/3954.pdf (accessed 17 April 2007).