Inaugural Research Conference set to become annual event
Our very first research conference: School-based Emotional and Mental Health Interventions – how do we know they work? took place in February 2010 at The Royal Society of Medicine, London.
The conference provided a forum to exchange knowledge and generate discussion and debate on current and future research, practice and policy focussing on children’s mental health and well-being in schools. The audience consisted of academics, policy makers and practitioners across a range of disciplines, including research institutions, voluntary organisations, local authorities, and central government.
The keynote address was given by Ian Morris, Author ‘Teaching Happiness and Well-being in Schools: Learning to Ride Elephants’; Visiting Speaker on the Masters Degree in Applied Positive Psychology, UEL; Head of Well-being, Wellington College
Other speakers included:
- Dr Crispin Day, Head of CAMHS Research Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College
- Dr John Ivens, Executive Head teacher and Acting Principle Educational Psychologist, Southwark
- Dr Susan Pattison, School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle upon Tyne
- Prof Martin Knapp, NIHR School for Social Care Research; Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU); Department of Social Policy, LSE
- Prof Ann Buchanan, Director, Oxford Centre for Research into Parenting and Children, Oxford University
- Prof Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling, University of Strathclyde
Click the links below to view the speakers' presentations.
Ian Morris presentation
Martin Knapp presentation
Susan Pattison presentation
Ann Buchanan presentation
Mick Cooper presentation
ThePlace2Be Research & Evaluation team presentation Research and Evaluation at The Place2Be
At the heart of our mission, there is a clear commitment to providing children with therapeutic and emotional support ‘backed up by research'.
In practical terms, this involves rigorous self-evaluation of our clinical practice so that we can explore both the process and outcomes of our work.
The Place2Be model was founded on research carried out in conjunction with the Royal Free Hospital back in 1995. We now have an in-house Research and Evaluation Team that carries out all of the internal evaluation for the organisation. Having reached the end of a three-year strategy and programme of work funded by the King's Fund, the Research and Evaluation Team have developed a new research and evaluation strategy, working towards achieving wider external evaluation and recognition of our work.
We have a full suite of methods in place to evaluate all aspects of the work we do – from the interventions provided for children, to our work with parents, to the training programmes delivered to counsellors and school staff.
We also undertake exploratory research using the data we have collected over a number of years. This allows us to challenge our methods, assist in identification of good and poor practice, and support continued growth of a quality-based, effective practice.
Where possible, we use evaluation measures that have been externally validated for reliability.
For example, we use the Goodman Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for our therapeutic work with children and the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) in the evaluation of our parent work.
We also use qualitative techniques such as interviews, focus groups and case studies to record the thoughts and feelings of the children and adults who access our services, which allows us to explore the ‘story' behind the statistical data. We regularly compile this data into reports that are used both internally at The Place2Be, as well as externally by our funders and other stakeholders.
Supporting our own evidence-base are the independent evaluation findings from external bodies such as Ofsted, and impact evaluations commissioned by our funders (e.g. the Children's Funds and the Scottish Executive, among others).
These objective accounts of our work support our understanding of the outcomes of the interventions offered to children, offer external validity to our own research and evaluation findings, ad highlight areas for further development.
We have worked with the National Family and Parenting Institute to identify an appropriate tool to evaluate the outcomes of our work with parents. We use the CORE (Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation) questionnaire pre- and post-intervention. The CORE-OM is a widely recognised tool and is used in a variety of adult mental health settings. Normative data exists from both clinical and non-clinical populations; therefore, we can use this data to benchmark our outcomes with those of a wider population who have also used this tool.
For further information, please contact our Research and evaluation department on 020 7923 5524 evaluation@theplace2be.org.uk