The Mental Health Foundation in Scotland partnered with Children’s Health Scotland and Digital Bricks Learning to develop a professional learning resource on mental health and wellbeing for all school staff in Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government’s Mental Health in Schools Working Group.
The resource is free, open access and available to anyone who may find it of benefit.
What is the resource?
School staff across all roles are in a great position to contribute to creating a school environment that protects and promotes good mental health and well-being for everyone in the school community. We know that school staff already provide a wide range of support to children, young people and families, which contributes to this, and we hope this resource complements and supports that.
The resource is broken up into bite-size topics that aim to provide school staff with knowledge and understanding of mental health and wellbeing, focusing on how to apply that learning to practical strategies and approaches in schools. For example, one topic looks at how to work well with families and the community. The resource collates a whole range of existing research, practice guidance and tools in one easy-to-access space.
Children and young people’s mental health and well-being are vital, and this resource is a significant addition to the suite of resources that school staff can access. It will provide essential learning and knowledge on mental health and wellbeing that schools can adopt and embed across all aspects of the school environment.
Who was involved?
The content was developed in consultation with children, young people, families and school staff working in schools across Scotland through a survey and online focus groups. We sought to learn about how school staff would like to learn, and the key themes that all groups thought were essential to address in the area of mental health and wellbeing. We incorporated the learning from this consultation throughout the development of the resource so that it met the needs of those it was designed to support.
Additionally, the resource was developed in consultation with an Advisory Group made up of the key players in the field of mental health and education in Scotland, with representation from:
Visit the CYPMH website
Visit the gov.scot website
If you work with children and young people in any role, we encourage you to take a look, register for free and find out more.
Please contact Shelley Buckley (Programme Manager – Children, Families and Young People) at [email protected] .