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HeadStart

HeadStart wasÌýa six-year, £67.4Ìýmillion National Lottery funded programme set up by , the largest funder of community activity in the UK. ItÌýexplored and tested new ways to improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged 10 to 16 and prevent serious mental health issues from developing.Ìý

HeadStart enabledÌýyoung people to thrive by building their resilience and providing additional support when and whereÌýneeded. It lookedÌýat how young people’s mental wellbeing wasÌýaffected by their experiences at school, their ability to access the community services they need, their home life and relationship with family members, and their interaction with digital technology.

Six local authoritiesÌýled HeadStart partnerships in , , Hull, , Newhamand ÌýworkingÌýwith local young people, schools, families, charities, community and public services to make young people’s mental health and wellbeing everybody’s business.

People with first-hand experience of living with an issue are well placed to identify and shape potential solutions. To make sure support worked, the HeadStart partnerships involved young people in the co-design, commissioning, delivery and evaluation of services.

HeadStart Learning Team

EBPU worked with The National Lottery Community Fund and the HeadStart partnerships to collect and evaluate evidence about what does and does not work locally to benefit young people, now and in the future. Partners whichÌýworkedÌýwith the EBPU on this evaluation included theÌýÌýand theÌý, a project of the Anna Freud Centre. TheÌýcollaboration was called the HeadStart Learning Team. Previous partners in the HeadStart Learning Team includedÌýand Common Room.

The HeadStart Learning TeamÌýusedÌýa mixture of questionnaire and interview methods. Young people completed questionnaires every year to help track changes in how they wereÌýfeeling and behaving over time. Professionals provided information regularly about what wasÌýbeing offered. Professionals and young people tookÌýpart in interviews annually to explore challenges and opportunities around delivery and what young people foundÌýhelpful.

The HeadStart Learning TeamÌýdeveloped theÌý, a suite of measurement booklets for primary school, secondary school and college students. Schools provideÌýa key setting for support and intervention with regard to young people's mental wellbeing and problems, across all age groups, and each WMF is a comprehensive and practical package of validated measures that are designed to assess a range of mental health indices including positive wellbeing, behavioural or emotional difficulties, and the presence and strength of protective factors.

Links

• Addendum to HeadStart evaluation privacy notice
• HeadStart digital event privacy notice
• Addendum to the privacy notice for the Measuring Wellbeing in Schools project
• Measuring Wellbeing in Schools child privacy notice (primary)
• Measuring Wellbeing in Schools parentÌýprivacy notice (primary)
• Measuring Wellbeing in Schools child privacy notice (secondary)
• Measuring Wellbeing in Schools parent privacy notice (secondary)