From a child who IS a problem to a child who HAS a problem: fixed period school exclusions and mental health outcomes from routine outcome monitoring among children and young people attending school counselling

Abstract

Background Exclusion from school is a disciplinary tool with an increasingly recognised relationship to poor mental health among children and young people. We explored the relationship between mental health and school exclusion for a cohort of children and young people receiving one to one counselling. Method We analysed routinely collected data from a diverse UK sample of children and young people aged between four and 16 years old and receiving school‐based counselling (n = 6712 students from 308 primary and 61 secondary schools). Fixed period school exclusion rates (number of sessions) were compared between the academic year before and the academic year in which the child attended counselling. Mental health (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) was compared at baseline and at the end of the intervention (after between 16–22 counselling sessions depending on the phase of education). Results Despite more complex and severe initial difficulties, and facing greater adversity, children and young people who experienced school exclusion prior to counselling demonstrated a significant reduction in subsequent sessions of school exclusion in the academic year that the counselling took place (from two full school weeks to half a school week). Moreover, over 74% of the students had fewer reported exclusions and more than half (56.14%) did not have any further subsequent exclusions. They also had better mental health measured by the teacher reported SDQ (pre‐intervention M = 18.94, SD = 6.83 vs. postintervention M = 15.67, SD = 7.56, t(310) = 8.23, p < .001) or by the parents (pre‐intervention M = 18.09, SD = 6.42 vs. postintervention M = 14.0, SD = 6.99, t(171) = 7.71, p < .001). Conclusions School‐based mental health interventions may positively influence educational engagement as well as mental health. Providers should, therefore, monitor both to explore the impact of their interventions. The identification of poor mental health may alter staff perceptions and management of challenging pupils, which future studies should explore.

Longitudinal association of conduct and emotional problems with school exclusion and truancy: A fixed effect analysis of the UK Millennium Cohort Study

“…Targeting child behavioural problems may start in the home and include evidence-based parenting programmes (Barlow & Coren, 2018), as well as training teachers to manage behaviour in the classroom (Nye, Melendez-Torres, & Gardner, 2019). Another approach which has shown promise to reduce mental problems (both conduct and emotional problems) as well as exclusion, is school-based counselling (Toth, Cross, Golden, & Ford, 2022). Better access for children to mental health services would also be needed, as currently the majority of children with clinical levels of mental health problems have no contact with to mental health services (Mandalia et al, 2018), and a large proportion those who are referred are turned away (Frith, 2016).…”

PROTOCOL: School‐based interventions for reducing disciplinary school exclusion: An updated systematic review

“…We also propose to include multi‐system interventions with the only caveat being that at least one element of the intervention had to be implemented in a school setting. As a result, there are many different types of interventions that may be included in our review, for example, school‐based mental health interventions that involve implementing one‐to‐one counselling (Toth et al, 2022) or interventions to create more equitable discipline policies in schools (Gregory & Skiba, 2019).…”