Projects and collaborations

CORC has had the privilege of working with colleagues in Greater Manchester (GM) to deliver the evaluation of the Greater Manchester Mentally Healthy Schools and Colleges Programme. This work was part of a major £134m action plan announced by GM in 2017, to help transform mental health for children and adults. The purpose of this strand of work was to provide support in school and college settings, to help children and young people to look after their emotional health and wellbeing and to provide specialist support where needed. In addition to training young people as mental health champions, the programme has given teachers the advice, training and support they need to help pupils as well as a simpler, easier way to refer into Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) where needed.

The delivery partners for this programme were as follows:

• Alliance for Learning: Youth Mental Health First Aid England training programmes
• Place 2 Be: Mental Health Champions, Consultations & One to One Psycho-Social Support
• 42^nd Street: One to One Psycho-Social Support
• Youth Sport Trust: Active in Mind Athlete Mentors, Young Mental Health Champions and Physical and Emotional Curriculum Training

As Evaluation Partner, CORC was commissioned to work with these providers and the education settings to address these three areas:

1. Impact on wellbeing and resilience of children and young people
2. Impact on staff wellbeing, competence and confidence to support and refer
3. Implementation experiences

This was achieved through a mixture of data collection including pupil survey and staff survey (both using the Wellbeing Measurement for Schools approach), intervention outcome measurement (using tools such as Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Child/Outcome Rating Scale (C/ORS)), and qualitative feedback via an online, open text survey.

CORC analysed all of the data collected and produced the final report for GM in Summer 2021.