Flint, Lucy Marie (2017) Exploring the lived experiences of pastoral staff identifying and supporting pupil mental health needs in mainstream secondary schools. Professional Doctorate thesis, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust / University of Essex. Full text available

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Abstract

The prevalence of children and young people with mental health needs is of national and local concern. Changes in legislation have explicitly made the identification and support of pupil mental health needs a role for schools. Research indicates the identification of pupil mental health needs has a multitude of barriers meaning said needs are frequently unidentified. This is of concern given it is estimated that half of mental health needs have their onset during adolescence and are related to negative outcomes such as poor educational attainment and in some cases, suicide. School staff are tasked with performing a Tier 1 (Universal Services) mental health professional role. However, there is considerable variation in the support school staff receive when performing this pastoral role and routine pastoral care has received little attention in the literature. The purpose of this research was to explore the lived experiences of lead pastoral staff identifying and supporting adolescent pupil mental health needs in mainstream secondary schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four purposively selected members of secondary school staff performing lead pastoral roles. The interview transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and the following four overarching themes were found to be relevant for all participants: Multiple Conceptualisations of Role, A Myriad of Emotion, Constraints and Conflict, and Remit. These findings are discussed in the context of existing literature and the limitations of this research are considered. Implications for educational psychology practice are proposed, relating to the different levels at which educational psychologists work: individual, group and organisational. Suggestions for future research related to pastoral leads identifying and supporting adolescent pupil mental health needs are provided.

Item Type:	Thesis (Professional Doctorate)
Additional Information:	Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the Professional Doctorate in Child, Community and Educational Psychology awarded by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in association with the University of Essex
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Professional Doctorate in Child, Community and Educational Psychology, Edpsych Updates
Subjects:	Children, Young People and Developmental Pyschology > Adolescents- Psychology Learning & Education > Educational Psychology Research, Tests, Assessments > Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Department/People:	Children, Young Adult and Family Services Research
URI:	https://repository.tavistockandportman.ac.uk/id/eprint/1458

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