Learning from HeadStart: Does social action help young people with emerging mental health issues?

Context:
This study aimed to evaluate Team Social Action (TSA), which is a targeted intervention run in schools by HeadStart Newham. Strand 1employed a waitlist randomised controlled trial (RCT) and strand 2 involved qualitative interviews with pupils and staff to evaluate whether TSA had a positive and significant impact on young people’s wellbeing, school connection, and peer support.

Findings:
Strand 1. Waitlist randomised controlled trial (RCT)
When the number of sessions attended was not taken into account, we found that TSA had no impact on young people’s wellbeing, school connection, and peer support. After taking attendance at TSA into consideration, we found that:
− TSA had no impact on those attending 9 or more sessions.
− Attending 10 or more sessions led to a small and statistically significant improvement in young people’s wellbeing and peer support.
− Attending 10 or more sessions led to a small and statistically significant reduction in how connected young people felt to their school.There are some limitations to the analysis, therefore further research is needed to confirm these findings.
Strand 2. Qualitative interviews
The qualitative findings corroborated the above trial findings.
− Young people participating in TSA did not experience changes to their wellbeing. However, they described that participation could support development of project management and communication skills. Delivery of a successful project could provide a sense of achievement.
− Young people did not tend to become friends with other TSA participants. However, they acknowledged one another when they saw each other outside of sessions, which might have contributed to pupils’ social capital.
− Young people viewed the intervention as separate from school, as school staff were not in sessions. HeadStart Youth Practitioners, school leads and young people had a shared understanding of TSA. However, there was variation in how TSA was implemented, based on the school, the group’s needs and the Youth Practitioner’s facilitation style. Youth Practitioners reported inappropriate referrals to the intervention, including those with a higher level of need.

Implications and Recommendations:
Although further research is needed to confirm the findings, the current study suggests that:
1. Optimal attendance might beimportant in increasing thebenefits of TSA.
2. TSA delivery could be refined to enhance young people’s wellbeing, peer support, and school connection (see Implications - page 17).
3. Further work may be needed to ensure consistent intervention delivery.
4. The qualitative findings suggested that TSA might be effective in building young people’s project management skills, communication skills, self confidence, and social skills, which were not measured in the current study. Future research should therefore measure whether improvements are observed in such skills.