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Creating a Health Research Network to improve young people's mental health and well-being in Schools

South-west School Health Research Network (SW-SHRN) – Creation of a network to characterise and improve adolescent mental health and well-being

Research Team: Prof Russ Jago, Prof Rona Campbell, Dr Judi Kidger, Prof Frank de Vocht, Prof Eileen Kaner, Dr Esther van Sluijs, Dr Hannah Fairbrother, Dr Patricia Albers, Emily Widnall & Georgina Hopkins

Who's involved: University of Bristol, University of Cambridge, Fuse & University of Sheffield

April 2020 - March 2022

Project summary

The aim of this project is to establish a School Health Research Network among secondary schools in the South West of England (SW-SHRN). The network will provide research evidence to schools on how to improve the health of their pupils.

If you are interested in more information about the SW-SHRN or your local authority / school would like to take part in the SW-SHRN, please email sw-shrn@bristol.ac.uk.

What does this mean for public health professionals?

  • The SW-SHRN seeks to create a new method of partnership working bringing together schools, academic health researchers and public health teams in local authorities to improve the health and well-being of school-aged children and thereby improve education attainment.
  • This project supports sharing of knowledge across the stakeholders.
  • Data collected through the SW-SHRN will help provide schools and local authorities with timely and robust data on the health of their students, and help them to identify areas in which public health intervention may be required. This in return will help public health professionals focus their resources in the areas most at need.

What does this mean for the public?

  • Schools are the setting that have the greatest potential to impact on children and young people’s health at the population level. Our project will help schools learn which areas of public health students need support with to know where to focus their resources to improve health outcomes. For example, if data shows students are experiencing low mental well-being, this information will be fed back to the school in a tailored report, and the school will be encouraged to look at interventions they can introduce to target identified areas of need
  •  Children and young people who establish healthy lifestyles early are more likely to live healthier lifestyles as adults and this in turn provides societal and economical benefits.

The aim of this project is to establish a School Health Research Network among secondary schools in the South West of England (SW-SHRN). This work will build on that of similar established networks in Wales and Scotland. The reason for having such networks is to provide research evidence to schools on how to improve the health of their pupils because healthy children learn better, and the better educated children are, the healthier their lives will be in the long-term.

We will work with 20 secondary schools in the south west of England. We will seek to recruit Year 8 and Year 10 pupils in these schools and ask them to complete a questionnaire. The questionnaire will ask about pupils’ mental health, health and social well-being, and risk-tasking behaviours (e.g. alcohol, drugs). We will also ask a member of staff to complete a questionnaire to collect information about school policies relating to health improvement in their school. We will work with schools to produce school specific feedback reports which summarise the health of the pupils in the school, and provide benchmarking data where appropriate.

We will also talk to schools to identify things that might make running a school health research network easier or harder and use this information to explore new ways to expand the network and into a larger group of schools both in the south west and in other parts of England. We will also talk to key stakeholders to identify key issues to consider in sustaining the network long-term.

A Young People’s Advisory Group and a Stakeholder Group with members of the public residing have been formed to inform the project.

Beyond the school reports, results from the project will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journal articles, conferences and in a policy briefing document.

If you are interested in more information about the SW-SHRN or your local authority / school would like to take part in the SW-SHRN, please email sw-shrn@bristol.ac.uk.

In the news

Implementing School Health Research Networks in England to improve young people’s health and wellbeing

Publications

Widnall, E., Hatch, L., Albers, P.N. et al. Implementing a regional School Health Research Network in England to improve adolescent health and well-being, a qualitative process evaluation. BMC Public Health 23, 745 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15713-9

Catherine A. Sharp, Emily Widnall, Patricia N. Albers et al. Creation of a Pilot School Health Research Network in an English Education Infrastructure to Improve Adolescent Health and Well-Being: A Study Protocol. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13711; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013711

Resources

Research briefing: Implementing a regional School Health Research Network in the South-West of England

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NIHR School for Public Health Research
William Leech Building, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear NE2 4HH
sphr@newcastle.ac.uk

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