Research Library

This briefing reports the findings from two qualitative studies conducted as part of the HeadStart Learning Programme (national evaluation). Authors: Stapley, E., Eisenstadt, M., Demkowicz, O., Garland, L., Stock, S., Deighton, J. (2020).

This briefing is about using a whole school approach to promote mental health. Such approaches are a characteristic feature of HeadStart and are also encouraged in advice published by the Department for Education. Authors: Demkowicz, O., Humphrey, N. (2019).

This study aimed to evaluate Team Social Action (TSA), which is a targeted intervention run in schools by Headstart Newham. Strand 1 employed 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. Authors: Gill, V., Panayiotou, M., Demkowicz, O., Humphrey, N. (2019).

Public facing summary of ‘Mental health and academic outputs’ looks at the relationship between mental health, attainment and attendance, using baseline data (2019). Authors: Lereya, T., Deighton, J. (2019).

This document describes learning from the first year of the HeadStart programme, drawing on the first timepoint of research interviews conducted with young people at the HeadStart partnerships, as part of the qualitative evaluation of HeadStart led by EBPU. Authors: Stapley, E., Deighton, J. (2018).

This report explores the data related to the prevalence of mental health problems in young people. It investigates how this varies by demographics such as gender, ethnicity, special educational needs status, free school meal eligibility and child in need status. Authors: Deighton, J., Lereya, T., Patalay, P., Casey, P., Humphrey, N., & Wolpert, M. (2018).

In this study, we focused on mental health problems and subjective wellbeing, which were measured in Year 8. We measured mental health problems with the emotional and behavioural difficulties subscales of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (2022).

In this briefing, we aim to illustrate the range of targeted interventions offered by six local authority led partnerships through the HeadStart programme. We also investigate whether these interventions reached young people with higher needs in terms of their mental health and wellbeing (2022).

This briefing draws on table discussions at the HeadStart Learning 2020 conference, which took place in February 2020. The event was a collaboration between the HeadStart Learning Team and The National Lottery Community Fund, with substantial input from young people involved in HeadStart from across the six partnerships (2020).