The WELLBEING Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Working with social care to develop an intErvention to prevent mentaL heaLth proBlems in chIldreN accessinG early help and child welfare services: the WELLBEING study
IRAS ID
308660
Contact name
Ruth McGovern
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 31 days
Research summary
Children and young people (CYP) in contact with social care services are at high risk of developing mental health problems. These problems, which can be common or severe are typically linked to a specific need (such as disability) or adverse childhood experiences. However, CYP in contact with social care services often experience multiple barriers to accessing timely, evidence-based intervention.
Without their needs met, many of these CYP may develop persistent mental health problems and go on to have poor life chances. Early and brief preventative intervention can be effective at reducing mental health risk.
Our project aims to work with CYP and the professionals who support them to determine which CYP (age, status with the care system and mental health risk factors) should be targeted for support and to develop a preventative intervention to be delivered within social care that responds to their needs. Our specific objectives are to:
1) Engage with children who are at mental health risk and are in contact with social care and parents/caregivers to identify risk and protective factors for the development of mental health problems in this population
2) Identify factors malleable to change and the ways in which they could be intervened with by practitioners within children’s social care
3) Co-design a targeted preventative intervention which has been developed with children who are in contact with social care services, and the practitioners that support them.
We will address objectives 1 and 2 through interviews or focus groups with children and young people aged 11-25 with mental health risk factors supported by children’s social care services, and interviews with parents of children and young people who experience mental health risk factors and are supported by children’s social care. We will address objective 3 through workshops with i) social care and mental health practitioners and ii) children and young people aged 11-25 with mental health risk factors supported by children’s social care. We will analyse interview and focus group data using thematic analysis; and will develop a co-designed intervention based on our findings from this project using established methods for intervention development.Lay summary of study results: Children who come into contact with social services are at risk of developing serious mental health problems which can add to wider disadvantage such as family breakdown and poverty with effects that persist into adulthood. Little is known about how to prevent mental health problems in such children and young people. We aimed to develop an intervention which social care practitioners can provide to children to help prevent mental health problems.
We conducted a review of previous literature reviews to find out what was already know about this topic area. We held group discussion with practitioners from children’s social care services and mental health services and talked to young people directly, and their parents/caregivers, to find out what are the main causes of young people to experience mental health problems, what actions might help to protect them and how these approaches can best be delivered.
We shared our learning with children and young people, as well as social care and mental health practitioners. We worked together to develop a new way to support young people with mental health concerns. This new approach provides one-to-one informal, activity-based support to young people who have experienced difficult and/or traumatic experiences. In addition, practitioners need to support family members to help them understand how to support each another.REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/WM/0034
Date of REC Opinion
30 Mar 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion