Updated:
May 29, 2024
Written By:
Liz Robson
Our approach to working with Senior Mental Health Leads (SMHLs) supports them to build on the effective practice they already have in place. Our priority is to help SMHLs strengthen and improve their school or college mental health provision, develop and embed action plans and address any gaps. These gaps can be addressed by accessing and using our resources and toolkits provided in the training and through ongoing 12-month access to Wellbeing Club.
Our school system model has been developed from the 8 principles to whole-school mental health and demonstrates to schools how the areas for developing school mental health interplay and connect with each other. This framework provides a helpful way of developing any school mental health and wellbeing improvement plans.
Using a model like this helps schools see the bigger picture and allows SMHLs to focus on one element or several elements of their whole school approach to mental health depending on the needs of their school.
There is no wrong place to start. The most important thing is that a start is made, and that the aspiration to continually improve and develop school mental health remains on any schools strategic action plans or improvement plans.
Mental health and wellbeing improvement plans don't need to be difficult or complicated, although it may feel that way. That is why we have create an ultimate guide to school mental health and wellbeing to explain this in more detail.
In most cases, you can adapt school action or improvement plans you already use to include opportunities to develop wellbeing rather than having a separate plan just for mental health and wellbeing. You don't need to reinvent the wheel, integrating school models for mental health to work already establish makes it much more likely to be effective and sustainable in your school.
One of the most popular frameworks for developing and improving school mental health is explored below. The eight principles provide a simple way of focusing your efforts to develop mental health in strategic areas. We have used this model for several years and developed it into our whole school system framework which represents the dynamic nature of developing school mental health.
This diagram below illustrates the eight principles and is taken from the Public Health England Document 'Promoting children and young people’s emotional health and wellbeing - a whole school and college approach'. The principles are also listed below and you can find the whole document here.
All our Wellbeing Club courses and toolkits map to our consistent practical and evidence-based frameworks. This way mental health and wellbeing strategies based on the learning outcomes can be applied at any ‘layer’ or ‘area’ within a school environment. These tools can be incorporated into personal online action planning progress logs to seek feedback from our supportive experts and gain personalised support during the time they are members.
Find out more below about the specific learning opportunities, workshops, courses, and toolkits included in Wellbeing Club and how these meet the 8 principles for whole school mental health and the SMHL learning outcomes.
Wellbeing Club membership provides a wealth of opportunities to share and learn with other professionals.
SMHLs, who are Wellbeing Club members, will complete progress logs, providing them a framework for personalised online trainer feedback and the opportunity to review individual progress, action plans, and address challenges. Leads can complete up to 3 logs (one per term) during the 12 months gaining ongoing feedback and the ability to track their own progress for 12 months.
In our Wellbeing Club we apply these learning outcomes through courses and resources that cover each of the outcome areas in bitesize chunks. This helps prevent the development of school mental health becoming overwhelming for the lead, while at the same time enabling the lead to keep up the momentum needed to embed sustained change. For example our SMHL Wellbeing Pathway course supports you to plan and lead your whole school approach to wellbeing.
Our training and resources are delivered through our custom-built online membership academy platform Wellbeing Club which provides:
Find out even more on our SMHL Wellbeing Pathway course inside our Wellbeing Club and read how the Wellbeing Club is helping other schools to develop their whole school approach to wellbeing. Find out how you can access funding to join our DfE Assured Programme for Mental Health Leads, by accessing our FREE Funding Webinar.
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